The opener, "Ellipsis(Origin)", slides kalimba plucks into heavily processed swells, announcing the coming darkness with compositional aplomb. »UnKnown«,  the title track and longest of the bunch, begins as a moody drone ornamented with field recordings, which sound like water droplets slowed to a crawl. The album overall moves slowly, replacing the normal march of time with the feeling of an oncoming storm or an ominous night. The water drops are then sped up becoming almost rimshots that herald the arrival of an electric bass followed by acoustic drums, providing a seamless transition from field recording to acoustic instrumentation, all pulled under the dark blanket of Unkown's low-key vibe. Sounds are masked and marshaled in a way that reveals Gisler's talents at mixing and processing as well as pure signal recording. 

 

"SomeCallItRunning" is a repeated, single note layered with chords, atop a hazy background swarming in. "TrainStation" is a claustrophobic drone, haunted, and creepy as shit. It is so much like the air and tunneled quality of being on a train platform, then proceeded by slow acoustic drumming that emerges from the miasma. The final track, "Drain" starts out as the crackling hiss of tape noise -- the processed air of a manhole that Gisler crawled into to make the field recordings that comprise "Drain". It all sounds like an astral journey, weirdly enough, leaving the terrestrial behind in a place that could not be more of this world--the sewer! 

 

Fans of lowkey, dark ambient work will love the slow-moving tempo here, as will post-rockers who enjoy a good, acoustic rhythm section with their electronica. Highly recommended! To find out more