Release Date: 27 July 2023
Song Count: 8
Rating: 7.8/10
Description:
Today's album is the 2023 release from a duo of Greek electronic music producers combined under the name One Arc Degree that combines Ambient and Techno music to forge its own identity as a rather unique piece fo electronic music. While not much is known about the two men behind the project, Ioannis Konstantios and Vasilis Kesalidis, their collaborative efforts under the name One Arc Degree have existed for almost 15 years now, hosting the various amounts of music they have produced and released over time.
The album has quite long tracks, every one of them exceeding five minutes and one even going past 10 minutes in duration, and generally walks along the path of a meditative soundscape paved by slow synths and lowly contrasted yet almost dance track-like percussion. A clear melodic direction isn't to be found in any of the instruments within the songs, instead sets of looping tunes taking charge and letting the music naturally take a back seat. The sound is dreamlike, yet not overindulging, and it finds itself in a well-upheld balance between musical intensity and lightness that amplifies what can only be described as the floaty and serene energy that streams through each track.
While musical pieces designed around creating an ambience can easily fall into the trap of lulling or boring the listener in a negative manner and sapping interest and intrigue away from themselves, especially if they are also longer in general duration, The Forest and the Milky Way manages to avoid this effect and stand out as a success within what it aims for. In spite of its almost full-hour long runtime, I almost never felt as if the songs were in any way overstaying their welcome or lingering for longer than they should have, save for potentially the opening track, which is only natural given it is also the longest one within the album itself.
A surprisingly qualitative cosmic ambient album, and one that leaves me further interested in the other past, present and future endeavours of the artists behind it.