Album Review: A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen

An up and coming ambient/classical act, A Winged Victory for the Sullen has quite the charming and intriguing pedigree. The duo is made up of Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid) and Dustin O'Halloran (Devics), two of the genre's heavy hitters. Stars of the Lid alone should perk up some ears, as that duo defined 2000's ambient scene with their two groundbreaking releases. A Winged Victory for the Sullen has big shoes to fill, with the aforementioned pedigree being both a gift and a hindrance.

Too many people will check out the band's self-titled debut with an unfortunate amount of per-connotations. But this isn't Stars of the Lid nor is it Devics. This is something else, but at the same time it is a logical amalgamation of either artist's sounds and abilities. It's piano driven, courtesy of O'Halloran, and very straightforward in its ambiance, thanks to Wiltzie. It's a beautifully composed meshing of minimalism and contemporary classical, offering a healthy dose of ridiculously pretty chords and lush swells and timbre.

Album Review: Kashiwa Daisuke-88

I really make no secret about it—Kashiwa Daisuke’s 2007 masterpiece, Program Music I is one of, if not my favorite album of all time. Truly, I could write pages upon pages why the album means so much to me, how its endless complexities and extravagant melodies still appeal to me in the same way they did those years ago. I can even recount my very first experience with the album. Rarely does an album come along that convinces me that music can transcend an artistic medium, and become something greater, something effectual and tangible. Program Music I, in its short life span, has had this effect on more persons than just I. In fact, people all over sing Daisuke’s praises, despite some of his more questionable moves