CD – mAtter

This is such a splendid, elegiac album that the title Six Pieces For Guitar seems a little modest and simplistic. This album is released by Matter, a well-know Japanese independent label founded and curated by Yukitomo Hamasaki. While guitar sounds are most prominent in the sequences produced by Stijn Hüwels throughout these six tracks this is really an orchestral environment, permeated by field recordings, loops and processed guitars. They are very minimalistic and iterative evolutions that create an evocative and delicate drone music, rich in subtle dissonances and powerful reverberations. The Belgian sound-artist carefully calibrates sound elements in a sophisticated soundscape, infused by a meditative and melancholic approach. In the best tradition of Matter, a meticulous attention to the release’s design is added to the elegance of the sound treatment. This comprises a thick and stylized cardboard folder accompanied by a folded A4 sheet (in English and Japanese) complete with six different photographic cards, one for each progressive untitled track. The entire project is permeated by a placid flow of sounds, thoughtful and intimate, never ordinary in progressions, dreamy and full of elegiac tones: shadowy but still clearly distinguishable, faded but finely drawn, engaged in tonal variations and timbres, with alternating volumes and narrative tensions. The minimalist fascination peeking between the grooves are myriad and the environments are extremely warm and enveloping. Stijn Hüwels reconciles us with a quietism that is authentic, because it makes a difference: to successfully convey real emotions through music.

 

Stijn Hüwels | SIX PIECES FOR GUITAR : trailer

 

mAtter | Stijn Hüwels / SIX PIECES FOR GUITAR – untitled I : sample

 

mAtter | Stijn Hüwels / SIX PIECES FOR GUITAR – untitled VI : sample