Echo Collective is the first solo album of original material from neo-classical journeymen Echo Collective. Though their name may be unfamiliar to many, their work is not; past collaborations include Johann Johannsson’s 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann and Christina Vantzou’s superb N. 4. Throughout the past few years, Echo Collective have made a name for themselves not just as technical masters, but as intuitive, adaptable and generous artists.
If, from that, you think you’ve worked out how The See Within sounds, you’re wrong. It is a delicate, controlled album—but it’s a far cry from the quantised assembly-line beauty of someone like Nils Frahm. It’s miles away from anyone else, too. Echo Collective don’t just get their socks off; they fully commit to an approach which uses no post-processing or production techniques (besides reverb). This doesn’t feel like an appeasement to fetishists of analogue media, shelves overflowing with digitally-mastered vinyl. It instead betrays a love of form, musicianship and experimentation. That the album’s relatively untouched performances feel so tactile is just a wonderful bonus.
In some cases, production on The See Within becomes as compelling to engage with as the music itself—‘Glitch’, as anomalous in the tracklist as its name suggests, sounds like a rank of chattering computer consoles, or a quasi-orchestral rendering of mobile phone interference.
And even when instruments are identifiable, their use is novel enough to defamiliarise. ‘The Witching Hour’ melts away through its runtime into a Shepard tone of descending portamentos, every instrument on the track seeming to wilt as it is played. Even the album’s title feels like a magic trick—substituting one vowel to create a phrase which is both funny and mysterious. In moments like these, The See Within survives the spirit of film pioneer Méliès. The trick is simple, but so much fun you never try to work it out.
The See Within is available for download and streaming here.
Words: Andrew O’Keefe
