THE SEAS TREES SEE is the latest album by American electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello, released march of this year.
I wanted to review this Dntel record on the blog because I think it's always interesting to see where musicians find themselves this deep into a career- Tamborello has been a musician for over 30 years now, which is longer than I've been alive, and the commitment to still be making music is genuinely impressive. So what's going on on this record?
The record opens on this lo-fi spoken word piece- THE LILAC AND THE APPLE which is a remix of a Kate Wolf track- it's accompanied by not a lot at first, aside from the rushing air of the vocoder and the distorted audio artifacts, but it's joined by some pretty ambient strings as it progresses. In the final moments, the vocal processes are removed to leave just the beautiful singing voice underneath.
The track quickly jumps into the second track THE SEAS which has the aquatic ambiance with it's lush reverb creating a sense of space. The track initially may sound minimalist, it did to me initially, but there are so many tiny sounds going on, the percussion track has this light delay, there are these strange creature- like sounds in the background which adds to the ambiance, and it's kind of over before it's begun at only 2:35.
WHIMSY centers on this morphing ball of electronic sound that expands and contracts above this backing track of running water- the track is largely content to just have a few sounds at once, but it never feels empty, and when the bass comes in towards the last third the track really opens up in a pretty way, as if the ball from before has been kneaded and rolled out.
THE MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN tells the story of a hiker getting lost on a mountain, and meeting various people as he tries to get back home. The backing track sounds like it's trying to evoke the feeling of walking thru the woods- it's rhythmic, and there are sounds that sound like birdsong. It morphs and changes as the setting of the story gradually does too. The track is overall solid, but listening to it feels like there's some unknown greater meaning encoded in the words- there's an emphasis placed on how many nights the man stayed, and the mountain's name, but I might be making things up.
BACK HOME and WHAT I MADE are generally alright if a little unmemorable. The latter has some cool clipping effects on these vocal and synth loops that come in and out. MOVIE TEARS is definitely a highlight- it starts with these sunken piano notes with vinyl crackle and water sfx that creates a really cool atmosphere with the breathy whispered vocals. It feels like a lullaby for a robot or something. The track ends by sinking back under the waves, before giving way to
FALL IN LOVE, which starts with this looping analog (or what sounds like to me) analog synthesizer, and then this introspective processed vocal passage. The track has cool atmosphere with a combination of percussion and plucked strings in the background.
YOGA APP took some getting used to for me, and I could see some people skipping it instantly- it's dissonant and kind of fucked up sounding, the whole thing sounds out of tune and there are some grating noisy elements in it too. It's interesting but not for everyone. It's also nearly the longest track on the album too. It attempts to break into something more serene towards the end, almost sounding like vaporwave at points, but it can't seem to stick it.
AFTER ALL has a feeling of real melancholy to it, the track feels like grasping onto fleeting memories, the track kind of deteriorates whilst trying to evolve across it's runtime, before fading away at the end.
Final track HARD WEATHER has a cool "final track" sound to it- I like the choppy vocal sampling, but it doesn't feel like it really earns it? Like, it feels like it's trying to summarize the album in a kind of deep way, but it doesn't feel like the album has built up to this track. It feels like the album wants to fade out, or float away, rather than have some grand, sweeping statement at the end.
Apparently there's a companion album to this coming out later this year called AWAY so be sure to stick around for that, I guess. But overall this album didn't blow me. There are some cool ideas but not alot to ride home about. Check it out if you want, you might get a kick from it.
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