LEZET - Tunnelled

Album: Tunnelled

Artist:  Lezet

Label: Kalamine Records

Catalogue no: N/A

https://kalaminerecords.bandcamp.com/album/tunnelled

Tracklist:

     1.      Tunnel 1

     2.      Tunnel 2

     3.      Tunnel 3

     4.      Tunnel 4

     5.      Tunnel 5

Many years ago, nearly thirty in fact, I ran a ‘zine called FRÄCTűred, one of the first such publications devoted entirely to what was then a burgeoning and thoroughly thriving underground industrial music scene and, after advertising in mainstream magazines, I used to get a constant stream of vinyl, CDs, CDrs, tapes, and other wonderful items coming through my letterbox to write about. Those were the heady pre-internet days, when communication was through letter and occasionally the telephone. In the 21^st century, things are a lot easier: the music I write about is online and available 24/7, news gets to me within moments, and my reviews are uploaded within days. In spite of the very real downside to the internet, there is a much bigger upside: a global-scale community of musicians, artists, and writers constantly exchanging ideas, music, collaborating, and creating.

The above reminiscence serves as background to how I discovered Lezet (and French label Kalamine Records, based in my favourite wine-producing region, Bordeaux [Irrelevant Factoid #1]) through the wonders of email. No more than fifteen minutes after putting out a social media request, I received an email in short order and after quickly clicking on the link contained therein, I find myself already reviewing one of their offerings. It seriously makes me wonder how I managed back then.

Lezet have created five tracks of living, breathing bliss, gently wafting delightful breezes of ringing drones through the ears and helping to clear the mind of unnecessary distractions. There’s nothing complicated going on here: just a gradual and subtle evolution between each of the five pieces, in fact changing so slowly that initially the shifts in tone and composition might not be fully appreciated. This is how evolution works, by enacting changes at a barely perceptible level, and so it goes here. It’s almost microtonal in execution, but there is a definite start and an equally definite conclusion bridging Parts 1 – 5. And by the time one reaches Part 5 one has noticed the change: although sounding somewhat similar in structure the constituents have mutated into something else.

This is definitely one for the quieter moments; it’s like a gleaming city seen from a distance, shimmering, slippery, elusive, and somehow immaterial. It isn’t a long album (a sliver over 25 minutes), but even so it says all that needs to be said.

Delightful. 

Psymon Marshall 2019.