Slow Motion Breath Forward by Talik (Review)

Cory Zaradur, who is one half of Language of Landscape — I reviewed their Memories Fade Under a Shallow Autumn Snow earlier in the month — recently let me know about Talik, his collaboration with Musk’oakA. You could lump Talik in with Language of Landscape, since they’re both “ambient” projects, but that’d be really quite lazy of you. Sure, Slow Motion Breath Forward has plenty of ethereal guitars and drifting textures throughout its five songs, but even a cursory listen will reveal that Talik quickly goes in a very different direction.

Most obviously, there are beats aplenty, albeit a more shimmery form of the glitchy, off-kilter beats one associates with IDM in its various forms. But more importantly, the tone and mood of Talik is entirely different. Whereas Language of Landscape was deeply melancholy and contemplative, Slow Motion Breath Forward is warmer and more relaxing, thanks to its melodicism, use of acoustic instrumentation, and field recordings of rainstorms and natural environments.

Or to put it another way, if Language of Landscape evoked ancient cathedrals and stark, barely illuminated rooms as its sonic settings, Talik evokes verdant open spaces under deep blue skies with their soaring guitars and cloud-like patterns of glitch.

Your mileage may vary: there are moments on the EP where the duo’s sound risks veering into New Age territory in its lightness and relaxed-ness (e.g., “Collective Force of Nothing”). However, there are other moments that are absolutely spellbinding, with the slide guitar that lazily ghosts its way in and around “Lullabies of Our Warming Earth“ ‘s crisp beats being the supreme example.

I’ve recently been experiencing some bouts of insomnia and have been staying up way later than my normal night owl-ish proclivities. Normally, I’d reach for something like Marconi Union or even Pan-American in such situations. Maybe its the recent thawing that Lincoln has experienced, but lately, I’ve needed something a little lighter and more, shall we say, positive — without being sappy or saccharine — and Talik fills the bill there quite nicely.