tommy awards: sessions

Nuearth Kitchen christens its Nuearth Conservatory sister label with an exquisitely laid-back EP by the Stockholm, Sweden duo Tommy Awards. The four luxurious, untitled tracks on Sessions arose from a live jam the twosome recorded for Made Like A Tree's esteemed podcast series in early 2013. Tommy Awards have refined the raw materials from that excursion into a balmy aural journey into realms of spacious tranquility. Track one enters earshot with an eerie, pointillist synth motif reminiscent of John Carpenter or Goblin and a creeping, stealthy rhythm, creating a tension between beauty and intrigue. This is something of a red herring, though, as the rest of the record is beatific enough to soundtrack your next deep-tissue massage. The crepuscular, slow-motion Balearic house of track two swells with gorgeous symphonic synths and is nudged onward by relaxing congas. The long coda exudes a profound sense of drifting on pacific waves. The third track's laggard beats lope under a majestically drifting synth that ices over your goggles like those on Joy Division's "The Eternal." It's stunning. The 14-minute finale is ridiculously grand, a gilded sundown processional across the beach and into the sea, set to one of the most chilled house chugs, ever. If you don't feel perfectly centered and content after Sessions, you may be beyond help.