Lakefront by Baltimore-based producer M. Ostermeier explores a glitchy electro-acoustic ambiance brought about through dialogues between piano and digital signal processing. He seems particularly fond of crisp, metallic sounds, like closely miked iron filings rustled in the hand, or knives gently being sharpened, but these never sound abrupt or unsettling. Rather, their hard delineation is used to offset the blurred piano chords or wispy granular drones which float between these points.
In ‘Recollection’ these scalpel tones sweep past, allowing sustained cello bows and sparse piano notes to unfold, the acoustic instruments foregrounded but naked, fragile. The title piece creates warm chords from a family of sine waves while piano patterns flicker to life, then crack and die. ‘Lost Weekend’, Lakefront’s bleakest track, centres around a billowy low-end drone upon which the sound of bricks clank and piano trills echo. It is revisited in happier times in ‘Lost Weekend, Revisionist History’, the drone transformed into a bubbling brook of welcoming synths, like Rune Gramofone group Alog. Seven tracks, thirty minutes, is an ideal amount of time to spend in M. Ostermeier’s pleasant company.
Joshua Meggitt
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