It’s an ambient album that likes to reach to the side, sometimes for solutions that are not obvious, but usually right. Ambient with adjacent elements. Interdisciplinary ambient.

I like interdisciplinary albums. Although, I should actually say, not all of them. Often, mixing different styles leads to chaos, clutter, resulting in an album that feels torn, fragmented, not so much heterogeneous as simply disorganized. Fortunately, PureH knows what he’s doing, PureH is good at syncretism, multidimensionality, and multitasking, and above all, he knows how to select what’s needed from different genres to achieve the desired effect on this particular album.

Did I mention recently that the charm of the internet is such and such, and I often come across interesting projects or artists when they’re on their third, fifth, or tenth album? Well, yes – I did. In the case of PureH, the situation is even more “mature,” as we’re dealing with an artist who has been active for over three decades. In short, the guy’s been playing longer than I’ve been alive, and I had never encountered him before. But, there’s no harm in that… nor any irreparable mistakes. Tetragram, however, is quite fitting for catching up. It presents a fantastic blend of atmospheres ranging from picturesque ambient, through lightly jazz-infused percussion motifs in Slumber, to modular fragments or touches of electronic alternative, and if you insist, there’s also a bit of post-industrial drone here. There’s also a lot of field recordings, which, in a way, bind everything together into one whole, while also living their own life, as the album is heavily inspired by nature itself. This isn’t exactly a groundbreaking statement, just take a look at the cover… There are indeed quite a few field recordings here, from the sea in the opening Paracusia, to charming birdsong in Tasukete (lately I’ve been lucky with albums inspired by or based on bird sounds, this is probably the fourth in just a few weeks), and more sea sounds or bird calls in subsequent tracks. Only in the final Polynya do the initial sounds of the sea gradually transform into the crackling of a breaking and melting glacier, which – especially in combination with the rather drone and gloomy atmosphere – doesn’t leave an overly optimistic note for the finale…

Tetragram is a multi-threaded, multi-dimensional album, one that neither bores nor exhausts – though there are many shifts in style and approach here, nothing feels forced, unnatural, or discomforting to the listener. It’s the kind of ambient that likes to reach sideways, for solutions that are sometimes unexpected, but usually apt. Ambient with appendices. Interdisciplinary ambient. Or simply – a very good, though somewhat challenging and attention-demanding album.

LINK: https://anxiousmagazine.pl/recenzje/pureh-tetragram/