Year: 2024
Label: Zoharum
Indeed an appropriate name for Swiss B°Tong’s umpteenth album, {Mass}. The release, divided across two CD’s, has a running time of almost 1,5 hours, which is massive by any standards. And when the music is some kind of ambient leaning towards the darker end of the spectrum – doubly so.
The material on {Mass} was recorded in two separate sessions in 2022 and 2023. As such, this could have been two separate albums. But, on the other hand, the sessions were clearly cut from the same stylistic cloth, so pairing their yields into one album is also a justified decision.
B°Tong’s style of abstract ambience leans towards the dark ambient end of the spectrum. Although, admittedly, the dark and mysterious imagery of the album plays a role in the perceived darkness of the album: had this something else than a red skull on a black background as its cover artwork, the moods of the album might be perceived quite differently.
Long, slowly shifting layers of monotonous synth; softly humming lower drones; sound reverberating as from a great distance; occasionally, a bit of guitar or more conventional synth providing some kind of pseudo-melody; sparsely used vocals here and there. It is from such building blocks that B°Tong has constructed {Mass}. For the most part, there is a cosmic feel to the atmospheres on the album – of the dark, endless and tranquil vastness of space. But is it inner or outer space?
At any rate, the darkness of {Mass} is not impenetrable, all obscuring or despondently pitch black. Instead, it is a soft and tender twilight harbouring secrets and mysteries – and the potential of light. The hopefulness of a vessel traversing the nigh-on infinite seas of blackness towards some distant star; or of a soul reaching through the darkness towards a bright, redeeming light.
Consisting in total of six tracks, most with a running time of well over ten minutes, it is pretty pointless to look for “hits” here. These are not tracks that stick to your mind as conventional musical compositions might – {Mass} is one of those albums to be taken in as a whole. Preferably the entire set at once: the two discs meld together rather seamlessly. With its long, slowly evolving, shifting, morphing ambient compositions, {Mass} is an album that lulls the listener into a pleasant sort of half-dreaming state. Its darkness is not a threatening or oppressive one.
Definitely not an album for tourists or passers-by, already by its sheer massiveness. This is one for somewhat dedicated fans of (dark) ambient.
Only Death Is Real 