This page contains a brief overview on the album AUSTERE/IN THE NOW: distance. Learn more about the artist and explore the track lists and website. If you find any information that needs to be corrected, please let us know.

 
Austere/In The Now "distance"
Reviewed by Jack the Tab for Ambient Visions magazine

A 4-track EP with enough quirkiness to drive you insane. There are broken up pieces of winding ambience highlighted by whooshing winds and rain from a summer storm. Slowly mounting into a mirage of synthesizers becoming almost epic sounding. There seems to be a variety of layers, which clang into one another. The second track breaks in with a lo-fi chunky beat. The beat suddenly changes into an overdriven mass, followed by a repetitive droned oscillation. As the track progresses, it builds. This building is rather gradual. The beat changes from a lo-fi sound to something that parallels a hypnotic trance beat. The ambience layered within have a darkened edge, while the chunkiness of the structure becomes its adversary.

With these features, it keeps this EP interesting and moving forward. Track three picks up with the same feeling beat. This beat has less of the lo-fi qualities as presented with the previous track, yet still remains rather chunky and quirky. It tends to border the edges of drum and bass, but with the lack of speed. The final track streams into the chilled-out realm of spacey IDM. The quirky samples still remain and closely resemble that of the first track. Overall this is a nice pace considering the barrage of techno/electronica out these days. The EP stands out on its own, only to strive for a different sound.

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Austere
A Biography
By Bill Binkleman
Wind & Wire magazine
http://www.windandwire.com

Austere is an enigmatic duo who record some of the more interesting ambient music I've heard in my six plus years of reviewing. From the swirling drones (I was gonna say "dark" drones, but...) and eerie melancholy of Monodia to the warmth and beauty amidst minimalism of Fade to the cool glitch beats and samples of one of Austere's side project's The Mystifying Oracle's Quintessence (see my review here:
http://www.windandwire.com/may/quintessence.htm)

Austere are less concerned with following the path and more concerned with breaking new ground. However, they are undoubtedly enigmatic, as one would glean from the above, and shun the spotlights of media and personality. However, in my many communiques with them, I have found few artists in this industry who are more polite, engaging, genuine or friendly. If only some of the more "exposed" artists in ambient music were as humble and humane.

Check them out at http://www.austere.org and read more reviews of their work by yours truly here at http://www.windandwire.com.

There, now you and others know as much about Austere as anyone!

Bill

Check out the artist's website:
http://austere.org

Track List:
1. Distance
2. Submerging
3. Disconnected
4. Austerity

Suggested CDs:

• Austere
• The Mystifying Oracle
• Austere

Other Genres:

• ELECTRONIC: Down Tempo
• ELECTRONIC: Ambient
• TYPE: INSTRUMENTAL