HALFTRIBE
Cloud Dreaming and Shadows (Shimmering Moods Records)
British composer Halftribe’s 2018 opus For The Summer Or Forever was an exquisite, ethereal tribute to the warmest season, mixing fragments of keyboards, guitar and sundry other instruments with static, hums and decayed sounds. Those hazy, cycling melodies are back on Cloud Dreaming and Shadows and just as quietly powerful. This one is a dreamy pastoral wonder inspired by his countryside escapes, all shimmering fragments and beguiling loops. Many of the pieces have that very distinct Halftribe signature, where different layers of sharp and fuzzy loops intersect at seemingly random intervals, a bit like watching random edits between high and low-resolution video footage. Yet the effect is not at all jarring; it’s soothing, gently surreal and totally involving.
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