Holmes, Mellin and Romero are drifters. The new album of the New York trio Numün opens with „beyond“, electronic and acoustic sounds entangle before a pulse clears the field from the quite high frequencies, a calm campfire groove starts, for a while – they know how to take breaks all along the way. Simple. But beautiful.
The vinyl has the colour blue („blue is the colour of the room where i will live“ echoes of my thinking brain), and this album surely works fine in a spacey evening ambience, with a fireplace, a window with a view, candles. „steps“ is the second track, and it‘s nice again, how the balance of mellow spheres and soft rhythms draws you into the music. Gentle does it.
Think of new age without pathos and „rosarote schwärmerei“, and the chamber music of Nunün fits well. „sideway“ wins over you with eastern drones and a western guitar: appalachian peace music, so to speak, greetings from John Fahey (and my sofa of free associations). Never too dense, this track is multi-layered, the percussion (tabla?) enters from the horizon, comes a tiny bit closer, never taking center stage. Pastel colours all around.
The last track of side 1, „eyes open“: Trina Basu enters on violin. Ah, this band obviously has a knack for mellow pulses. A touch of gamelan without cross rhythms. Easy to understand, that this music is connected with the broad stream of so-called „spiritual music“. I call it „horizontal music for the open mind“.
The second side opens with „vespers“. A bit of cowboy melancholia filling the space (daydreaming a wooden bench, an american veranda, a warm summer evening, simple as that). Be careful to call this tasty. There are these higher tones swirling around (higher and higher)! For friends of Popol Vuh, Numün is a winner, calm and polite.
Oh, soft breathing (murmuring) follows at the beginning of – sic! – „voices“. The „indian violin“ of Trina Basu again… vocals „enchanted style“, I add with a smile. Nearly groovy. A strain of Ambient Americana, carefully executed.
„lighter“, the penultimate track: we get a feeling for magic‘s structure: a bit of „kling klang“ followed by a guitar that prepares the ground, makes the dust dance (the details sharper now, dear reader, happens when tuning in more and more). Quite elementary percussion, uplifting. Modern mood music – impressive how Numün stays away from grand gestures without turning breathing quietness into precious prayers. Fine again, how, from a distance, a special melodic figur approaches on silent feet before being dissolved into texture again.
A music full of warm welcomes, no need ever to turn up the volume.
The record‘s finale: „lullaby“. I like the overall atmospheres, the mellow approach. The constant presence of higher frequencies may be their way to look „beyond“. The music wins in fact (I just did it) when turning down the volume. I feel seduced by this ending (i want it to stay just a little bit longer). Is that birdsong?
Okay, I start again. side 1. Listening to „beyond“: with the volume 4 db down, and the softsoftsoft pulse, i am calming down even more, have to smile, when Mr. Campfire calls the night in , the birds, the fireflies, the apparitions. (Haha, with words, I’m a free floater!) By the way i speak all my words into the air, meaning, into a machine that translates spoken words in written language. Ladies, gentlemen, howling dogs and singing ghosts, I’m grooving in. No more words, i think i‘m in. A lovely affair. Dream territory. Cerulean blue vinyl.