After listening to the EP “Loon” by Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm a few months ago and really enjoying the sparse soundscapes created by the experimental artists collaboration, I decided to dig deeper into some of their other works.

“Trance Frendz” came out this year and the sound of minimal organic instrumentation blended with strongly synthetic elements is still here, but this time with a stronger structure in terms of an album. The longer playtime allows them to create an overall mood that slowly shifts between the tracks which when played as a complete piece become more than the sum of their parts.

23:52 comes right in the middle of the “Trance Frendz” and provides this powerful, awe inspiring force that gives the album a sense of scope grander then the more insular music found on “Loon”.

Although fairly simple in structure the sound design is complex and rich and as the filters on the synth open they reveal more and more layers of design until the scale of the track reaches cosmic levels. Simple yet incredibly powerful work from two artists who are quickly becoming some of my favourites working in electronic music today:

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