Various Artists - Far Away But Even Closer: Young Lithuanian Composers Abroad [Music Information Centre Lithuania]

Recently released via the ever active Lithuanian label outfit that is the Music Information Centre Lithuania, the main hub for the countries Contempory Classical and experimental music scene, is "Far Away But Even Closer: Young Lithuanian Composers Abroad", a nine track compilation album focusing on the musical works of Lithuanian expats and their role in the countries widespread cultural diaspora in a globalized world. All composed in the years 2017 / 2018 the selection of pieces starts off with Andrizs Arutiunion's "Armen", a glitchy, busy, bleepy and somewhat friendly tribute to both the early days of experimental electronic music composition, tape manipulation, glitched out modular synthesis and even echoes of 60s Psychedelic Rock whilst Gediminas Zygus' "Delirium" takes us deep into heavenly Ambient spheres and "Nice To Meet You" by Jura Elena Sedyte amalgamates (Neo)Classical composition techniques for piano and strings with elements of Jazz Noir and electronic textures to a calm, stripped down, yet thrilling effect. Following up we see Donatus Tubutis exploring intense, buzzing repetetive electronic pulses with his minimalistic, electroacoustic composition named "Tracer" which turns out to be our favorite cut on this album, Juta Pranulyte's "Intus" seems to play around with several ways of experimental brass and wind instrument abuse, bringing forth haunting, klaxon'esque pulses and other ghostly, brooding and partly even intensely threatening layers whilst "Going In" by Justina Siksnelyte creates a vibe of deep meditation and Ritualistic Ambient with its floating, ethereal gong / gamelan layers. Furthermore Aurimas Bavarskis' "V.A.L." meanders in between Drone, manipulated Field Recordings and scraping, fluttering Noize garnished with occasional retrofuturistic Ambient chords, Aiste Noreikaite deals with "Digital Empathy" in a symbiotic manner, fusing calm Ambient flows and computational sounds with experimental eruptions of electroacoustic nature, evoking memories of the legendary German "Abschied Aus Berne" compilation and Vitalija Glovackyte's closing contribution "Tender Volts" caters to the needs of all lovers of traditionally fuzzed out, blurry Ambient structures worldwide. Highly recommended, this!   

Album artwork on Instagram!