Disappearing (GM057) is the latest in a line of icy ambient records from the Italian label Glacial Movements. Amphior, who made it, is the Danish composer Mathias Hammerstrøm – some 12-15 years ago he used to make Garage music, but now he’s more wedded to the ambient mode. I like the idea that on Disappearing he’s trying to escape modern anxiety and contemporary fears by reaching back to a more innocent time – his own childhood. He achieves this mostly with faraway piano recordings (he associates the sound of the piano with his youth), and certain distortion and distancing effects, such as crackle and wobbly tapes, which are like the audio equivalent of sepia photograph tinting, or at any rate manage to create that “nostalgic” impression. Amphior also hopes to “blur… the line between reality and illusion” perhaps by invoking a general sense of ambiguity. Some of it’s too sentimental for me, but there’s honesty in the intent, and the album manages to convey a lot of emotion in these short miniatures. With guests Rikke Broholm Tornhøj Larsen on flute, and Stine Benjaminsen (appearing as Recorder Recorder). (05/03/2025)
