mu tate: let me put myself together

Experiences Ltd. follow releases from ULLA, Ben Bondy, Perila and co with a strong debut of starry-eyed, dub-heavy and intimate ambient from Artur Strekalov aka mu tate, strongly recommended for lovers of all things Huerco/Pendant x Vainqueur/Chain Reaction. Young ambient lamb mu tate joins the flock surrounding shy (uon, Special Guest DJ) and his keenly observed Experiences Ltd. label with a gorgeous suite of what he terms “immersive sonic procedures for introverted consumption” following his collabs with Kareem Lotfy and Art Crime. Now making the step onto Experiences Ltd after a run of mostly self-releases, Strekalov trades in a lower case style of ambience deployed in an elusively diffused style that never tests the listener’s patience and always has the good of their health in mind. Yet, in key with his peers, this is not new age schmaltz or massage parlour ambient; it’s of a more heavy, robust ilk with vaporous afterimages of club music lingering in a sort of post-party etherglow. Between the noctilucent ephemera of ‘Outer’ to the low-lit simulacra of ‘Saltwater’, thru the mulched swill of ‘Inner’, the gyring ambient-techno of ‘Impulse’, and the data-moshing washes of ‘Ultima Resonance’, the album’s eight pieces most cannily recall the sensations of tumescent skin, wandering conversations and sparking fingertips in the dawning hours of the after-party on one hand, while equally evoking a sense of midnight seclusion on the other. Blissed.