Pan American & Kramer’s Challenging Ambient Soundscape
In 1992, a New York City producer-composer/musician/filmmaker called Kramer moved to Demarest, a small town in Bergen County, after founding his Shimmy-Disc label where esoterica flourished. He helmed projects by Daniel Johnston, Galaxie 500, Half Japanese, Pussy Galore, Urge Overkill, Will Oldham and LOW. Now he works in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Illinois producer-composer-guitarist Mark Nelson records as Pan American. The two have teamed up to release their Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road album. The first single is “Floating Epitaph.”
Ambient music is, decidedly, an acquired taste. You don’t so much listen to it as breathe it in. You scent the air with it. It’s so understated, that oftentimes, I found myself reaching for a CD before realizing that an ambient CD was already playing! The “gentle mysticism” of the new single, according to Kramer, is “an audio mile-marker for music and musicians long gone, dislodged from the earth and drifting freely through the mountains of memory…for those who came before us and never left,” adding “I would beg listeners both animal and human to allow these beautiful landscapes I’ve created in collaboration with Mark Nelson to sing and speak and weep for themselves. Please forget about words. Just listen.”
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