Pausal - Lapses

Label: Barge Recordings
Format: Compact Disc + Digital Album
Country: US
Genre: Ambient, Electronic
Year: 9 Mar 2010
Artwork: Julia Heatherwick

From the label that brought you The Fun Years, UK duo Pausal cue up their new album, Lapses, an outstandingly follow-up to their eponymous EP, released recently via Highpoint Lowlife. Given that we're currently experiencing a seemingly overwhelming supply of high quality ambient and drone releases, it's hard to separate the great from the merely very good. Lapses certainly makes a case for a position in the former of the two categories, not for being exceptionally experimental or new in its approach, but because it's such a consummate work that oozes musicality and a mastery of the art. 'Vemead In Common' provides the first major highlight, filling a billowy quarter-hour with ecstatic orchestral swells and reverb-saturated piano melodies. In a similar vein 'One Watery Lens' and 'Lapsing' offer a kind of blurry string ensemble sound that evokes Stars Of The Lid. Breaking up the flow of these extrovert ambient pieces, shorter field-recording based works hint at more tangible, concrete sounds, but everything seems to be coated in a kind of eloquently filtered haze. Well-crafted, accessible and above all, exceedingly pretty, Lapses comes recommended to anyone with a penchant for luscious ambience.