BAND ANE - Anish Music Too & Free

Danish composer Ane Ostergaard’s returns with a follow up to her superb debut album, Anish Music. Released in 2006, that record was a totally engaging collection of laptop-based gems – beautifully melodic and irresistibly addictive.

Little over three years later and Anish Music Too picks up the baton, recorded in Ostergaard’s “small red wooden hut”. The first track to prick up the ears is Ballongyngen, which is as lovely a track as we have come to expect, displaying all of Ostergaard’s signature qualities – succulent melodies drifting atop crisp loops and twisted percussive tones.

Alma Krathus meanwhile is a lot darker than we have seen from Ostergaard before, with haunting atmospherics drifting beneath creepy Danish vocal samples – sounds like an old witch. Ambient melodies soon join in, blended with high pitched drones and interweaving microtones.

Braendsel is a little more avant-garde, a mish mash of found sounds seemingly without form of function. Anish Music Too definitely favours this direction a lot more than the more lucid, fun melodies of Ostergaard’s debut. For me, this is rather frustrating, as too many tracks meander aimlessly and never really find their direction. The continual chopping and splicing of tones and sounds also prevents the tracks building up a sense of mood, stunting their emotional and melodic growth.

In fact, after a good start, very few tracks on Anish Music Too stand out. Cirkel is a pretty ambient track and the closing Broedrene Malmborg has interesting backing, but the private conversation running through it gives the track an exclusive feel; you feel like an intruder just for listening.

Anish Music Too comes with a bonus disc, And Free, for which Ostergaard enticed friends and neighbours to contribute their own stories and sounds. Another mix of innocuous electronic ditties with a decidedly abstract approach to programming and structure, a couple of tracks are longer, and the sound palette a little wider.

Overall, a disappointing follow-up to Ostergaard’s debut; you’d struggle to find as many quality tracks on both discs put together as you would on Anish Music, but still the album carries its own private charm and doesn’t quite sound like anything else around, which definitely makes it worth pursuing if you’re looking for something leftfield.



	BAND ANE - Anish Music Too & Free
	7.4
	Jenka Music ~ JenkaCD09 ~ 15th February 2010
	Danish composer Ane Ostergaard’s returns with a follow up to her superb debut album, Anish Music. Released in 2006, that record was a totally engaging collection of laptop-based gems – beautifully melodic and irresistibly addictive. Little over three years later and Anish Music Too picks up the baton, recorded in Ostergaard’s “small red wooden hut”. The first track to prick up the ears is Ballongyngen, which is as lovely a track as we have come to expect, displaying all of Ostergaard’s signature qualities – succulent melodies drifting atop crisp loops and twisted percussive tones. Alma Krathus meanwhile is a lot darker than we have seen from Ostergaard before, with haunting atmospherics drifting beneath creepy Danish vocal samples – sounds like an old witch. Ambient melodies soon join in, blended with high pitched drones and interweaving microtones. Braendsel is a little more avant-garde, a mish mash of found sounds seemingly without form of function. Anish Music Too definitely favours this direction a lot more than the more lucid, fun melodies of Ostergaard’s debut. For me, this is rather frustrating, as too many tracks meander aimlessly and never really find their direction. The continual chopping and splicing of tones and sounds also prevents the tracks building up a sense of mood, stunting their emotional and melodic growth. In fact, after a good start, very few tracks on Anish Music Too stand out. Cirkel is a pretty ambient track and the closing Broedrene Malmborg has interesting backing, but the private conversation running through it gives the track an exclusive feel; you feel like an intruder just for listening. Anish Music Too comes with a bonus disc, And Free, for which Ostergaard enticed friends and neighbours to contribute their own stories and sounds. Another mix of innocuous electronic ditties with a decidedly abstract approach to programming and structure, a couple of tracks are longer, and the sound palette a little wider. Overall, a disappointing follow-up to Ostergaard’s debut; you’d struggle to find as many quality tracks on both discs put together as you would on Anish Music, but still the album carries its own private charm and doesn’t quite sound like anything else around, which definitely makes it worth pursuing if you’re looking for something leftfield.