Copenhagen-based electronic producer Rasmus Rasmussen first surfaced under his Aerosol alias back in 2006 with his debut album ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air’, and both it and its 2009 follow-up ‘Airborne’ saw him fusing glacial IDM electronics with an an increasingly post-rock indebted approach. It’s been a good nine years gap between ‘Airborne’ and this third album ‘Leave’, but in the interim Rasmussen’s certainly been busy, working as a keyboard player with members of Faust, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and his own psyche collective Causa Sui. It’s these extracurricular travels that have left a distinct presence upon the eight tracks collected here. Live instrumental elements such as guitar and keyboards assume more of the foreground here, lending a greater sense of scope to these tracks, which for the most part take their influence from the classic Krautrock period typified by the likes of Cluster, Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream.
Opening track ‘Paths’ starts out icy at first as glittering synth arpeggios interweave against delicately billowing ambient pads, but it isn’t long before slow programmed beats and ebbing guitar chords begin to drag far more warmth into proceedings, the hypnotically gliding rhythms providing the perfect serene counterpoint to the contemplative guitar and synth atmospherics. By contrast, ‘Reach’ stretches out into murmuring electro sequences and majestic bluesy guitar bends, sending a wash of synths rolling like a haze over over some digital landscape as clicking handclaps trail into the mix alongside gloriously swelling major chords, in what’s easily one of the most wide-eyed and twinkly moments here.
Elsewhere, ‘Possible’ pares back the more obvious electronics as ticking drum machines pulse away like a gentle heartbeat beneath delicate acoustic guitar strokes and elegant piano keys as subtle digital treatments add a hazy foglike texture to the background, before ‘Exposure’ sees darker shades creeping into the foreground as brooding bass synths wander against chiming guitar harmonics and ghostly vocal traces and icy minor keys add an underlying sense of eerieness. ‘Leave’ sees Rasmussen refining and simulataneously expanding his approach, resulting in what’s probably his most satisfying album as Aerosol so far.
