Grey Scale by Fennesz
It’s snowing. It’s April 5, and it’s snowing. Apparently there will be more snow tomorrow. Wonderful. Fennesz’s Black Sea is most certainly a cold weather album. It has a distant, detached sort of sound. Reflective. I consider Fennesz to be quite challenging to listen to, at first. I don’t think most people can appreciate ambient music, and will simply pass it off as background noise. Or they’ll go the incredibly stupid route of saying “that’s not music!” (cue Boyer). What this album does is create an emotional response with a very intricate and textured combination of sounds. It is worth investigating, and even more so if you find it dull at first. Invest more time in it and try to learn to appreciate it. For me, it took a while before anything Fennesz did made sense. I’m glad I gave him more than just one chance.
