Mótha – Nieuwe Manen (Recommendation)

Moss. The smell, the feel.

Some records you seem to smell and feel. Nieuwe Manen by Mótha is such an album. Mótha are Maarten Marchau (wooden flutes), Thomas Hoste (hurdy-gurdy, you read right) and Nele Nu. Some of you might know them from their collaborations with Simon Segers (Black Flower, MDCIII), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (CHVE, Amenra) and Nele Nu (poetry in motion) in a similar improvisation project called De Manen Opzij.

Deeply rooted, literally speaking, in the Ambient genre, Mótha create an otherworldly atmosphere. Just like any good Ambient-album, the music paints pictures in your mind. In this case a moose-covered forest floor which is touched by your bare feet.

Mótha take you on 50 minute journey through nature. The flute sections of Maarten Marchau remind of chirping birds while Thomas Hoste sets the tangible background with using loopers and sound processors that seem to be calming and somehow unsettling at the same time (in “Grond” for example).

It is always astounding how music that seems to offer no accessible things like hooks or repeating melodies but in spite of all that evoke deep emotions. Mótha‘s Nieuwe Manen is another great entry in the Ambient roster of Consouling Sounds. The Belgium label is known and beloved for discovering and ungrounding this kind of gems and they surely released another great one into the world.