Uploaded September 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Anjou is the beautifully enigmatic reunion of Labradford’s Mark Nelson (Pan American) and Robert Donne with fellow Kranky star, percussionist Steven Hess. The result of four years writing and editing, it marks Donne and Nelson’s first collaboration since Labradford’s ‘fixed:content’ (2000) and the first meeting of Pan American’s Nelson and Hess since ‘Cloud Room, Glass Room’ (2013). Now older, wiser, quieter, the trio offer a subtly involving, hazily detailed ambient suite gleaned from an intricate process of modular synthesis, Max/MSP programming and live instrumentation. Essentially it takes the trio’s respective, somnambulant aesthetics to a stranger, detached and dreamlike place, smudging the parameters of their sound to a shape-shifting mass of sublimated harmonics and intangible melody beyond the reach of most modern ambient practitioners. Our personal highlights are the Gas-like ‘Sighting’ with its brooding, distant pads and deft percussion from Hess, or the eerie midnight waltz of ‘Backsight’, especially when the shimmering SAW-style chords seep into play halfway thru. It’s a real beauty.
Anjou is the beautifully enigmatic reunion of Labradford’s Mark Nelson (Pan American) and Robert Donne with fellow Kranky star, percussionist Steven Hess. The result of four years writing and editing, it marks Donne and Nelson’s first collaboration since Labradford’s ‘fixed:content’ (2000) and the first meeting of Pan American’s Nelson and Hess since ‘Cloud Room, Glass Room’ (2013). Now older, wiser, quieter, the trio offer a subtly involving, hazily detailed ambient suite gleaned from an intricate process of modular synthesis, Max/MSP programming and live instrumentation. Essentially it takes the trio’s respective, somnambulant aesthetics to a stranger, detached and dreamlike place, smudging the parameters of their sound to a shape-shifting mass of sublimated harmonics and intangible melody beyond the reach of most modern ambient practitioners. Our personal highlights are the Gas-like ‘Sighting’ with its brooding, distant pads and deft percussion from Hess, or the eerie midnight waltz of ‘Backsight’, especially when the shimmering SAW-style chords seep into play halfway thru. It’s a real beauty.
