1.30.19 by Ryan Masteller

Under a blanket made out of soft light, I receive Odd Narrative’s “Parks” like the chosen one I so clearly am. How else am I to approach this duo’s work, this collaboration between Koma Elektronik’s Wouter Jaspers and Hainbach? Am I supposed to ignore it, let it do its thing, and move on to some other expectant sucker? No! I’ll shoulder my delightful burden like a Marvel superhero (NOT DC!), though willingly, not all, “I don’t want this burden, but if I have to…” I’m nothing if not enthusiastic about “Parks.”

And if you’re not … why not? Seriously, that’s a question I really have to ask. Because there’s no situation in life where “Parks” becomes an unwanted object. Its composers use a variety of sources to craft their work – “vocal sampling, field recordings, tape loops, contact mics, voltage-driven motors, washes of gorgeous synth pads, … radio transmissions, and much, much more” (yeah, I can read onesheets) – and that very “playfulness” that Jaspers and Hainbach embrace filters through into the process and the results. Yeah, this is ambient music – it’s on Muzan Editions after all – but it’s SO MUCH MORE than ambient music. It’s a cerebral journey of complex adventure, yet smooth and gently beveled like this pebble that I’m about to fling over the surface of the river and hope for multiple skips before it sinks.

Nope, giant plop. I’m not great at stone skipping.

But Jaspers and Hainbach are great at this, great at being Odd Narrative, great at making “Parks” and hopefully other things. You can be a hero too, a chosen one blanketed by the sweet events that unfold herein. All you have to do is buy one of these tapes (edition of 100). But there are only fourteen left as of this writing…