A Dream of Another
ILYAS AHMED
A Dream of Another
Boomkat Product Review:
Cult dream-weaver and occasional Grouper bandmate Ilyas Ahmed works his magic with heightened attention to spectral, acousmatic detail on his 2nd album for Geographic North - RIYL Loren Connors, Vini Reilly, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Grouper, Roy Montgomery.
Somewhere on a Venn diagram intersecting blues, folk, and ambient, Ilyas Ahmed’s humbly beautiful body of work is variously regarded as a solo artist and as a member of Visitors with Liz Harris aka Grouper, as well as a member of Grails and a recent collaborator with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Pakistan-born, Portland-based strummer has quietly trekked out for nearly 20 years since his earliest recordings, and ‘A Dream of Another’ finds him embedded in his sound, following calm lines of extended melodic thought into an enriched aether, with the choice of room recorded acoustics and playing a strong supporting role for his style of lyrically instrumental narration.
At this point Ahmed is confident enough to strip it all right back to a most nakedly honest yet hallucinatory evocation of a waking dream. There’s a highly visual sense of synaesthesia at play in the opening passage of loner piano gradually immolated by distortion while bells ring in the distance on ‘Etched in Smoke’, establishing a stark dimension which he inhabits with more romantic poignance on ‘Nasty Man’, while the dusty room swaddles his strings on ‘Twice the Memory’.
When he strums into the tremulous higher registers to a ticking vintage drum machine on ‘Little Devil’, The Durutti Column comparisons are unavoidable, and likewise worthy of analogs to Loren Connors on the spectral blues of ‘Waves’. But it really all comes together with a discreet, personalised flourish on the 10 minute, chamber-like ambient folk denouement ‘A Dream of Something’, harmonising his guitar with heavenly layered synth strings and keys that set the scalp tingling, passing out into elegiac bliss on ‘Imagine There’.
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Boomkat Product Review:
Cult dream-weaver and occasional Grouper bandmate Ilyas Ahmed works his magic with heightened attention to spectral, acousmatic detail on his 2nd album for Geographic North - RIYL Loren Connors, Vini Reilly, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Grouper, Roy Montgomery.
Somewhere on a Venn diagram intersecting blues, folk, and ambient, Ilyas Ahmed’s humbly beautiful body of work is variously regarded as a solo artist and as a member of Visitors with Liz Harris aka Grouper, as well as a member of Grails and a recent collaborator with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Pakistan-born, Portland-based strummer has quietly trekked out for nearly 20 years since his earliest recordings, and ‘A Dream of Another’ finds him embedded in his sound, following calm lines of extended melodic thought into an enriched aether, with the choice of room recorded acoustics and playing a strong supporting role for his style of lyrically instrumental narration.
At this point Ahmed is confident enough to strip it all right back to a most nakedly honest yet hallucinatory evocation of a waking dream. There’s a highly visual sense of synaesthesia at play in the opening passage of loner piano gradually immolated by distortion while bells ring in the distance on ‘Etched in Smoke’, establishing a stark dimension which he inhabits with more romantic poignance on ‘Nasty Man’, while the dusty room swaddles his strings on ‘Twice the Memory’.
When he strums into the tremulous higher registers to a ticking vintage drum machine on ‘Little Devil’, The Durutti Column comparisons are unavoidable, and likewise worthy of analogs to Loren Connors on the spectral blues of ‘Waves’. But it really all comes together with a discreet, personalised flourish on the 10 minute, chamber-like ambient folk denouement ‘A Dream of Something’, harmonising his guitar with heavenly layered synth strings and keys that set the scalp tingling, passing out into elegiac bliss on ‘Imagine There’.
Boomkat Product Review:
Cult dream-weaver and occasional Grouper bandmate Ilyas Ahmed works his magic with heightened attention to spectral, acousmatic detail on his 2nd album for Geographic North - RIYL Loren Connors, Vini Reilly, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Grouper, Roy Montgomery.
Somewhere on a Venn diagram intersecting blues, folk, and ambient, Ilyas Ahmed’s humbly beautiful body of work is variously regarded as a solo artist and as a member of Visitors with Liz Harris aka Grouper, as well as a member of Grails and a recent collaborator with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Pakistan-born, Portland-based strummer has quietly trekked out for nearly 20 years since his earliest recordings, and ‘A Dream of Another’ finds him embedded in his sound, following calm lines of extended melodic thought into an enriched aether, with the choice of room recorded acoustics and playing a strong supporting role for his style of lyrically instrumental narration.
At this point Ahmed is confident enough to strip it all right back to a most nakedly honest yet hallucinatory evocation of a waking dream. There’s a highly visual sense of synaesthesia at play in the opening passage of loner piano gradually immolated by distortion while bells ring in the distance on ‘Etched in Smoke’, establishing a stark dimension which he inhabits with more romantic poignance on ‘Nasty Man’, while the dusty room swaddles his strings on ‘Twice the Memory’.
When he strums into the tremulous higher registers to a ticking vintage drum machine on ‘Little Devil’, The Durutti Column comparisons are unavoidable, and likewise worthy of analogs to Loren Connors on the spectral blues of ‘Waves’. But it really all comes together with a discreet, personalised flourish on the 10 minute, chamber-like ambient folk denouement ‘A Dream of Something’, harmonising his guitar with heavenly layered synth strings and keys that set the scalp tingling, passing out into elegiac bliss on ‘Imagine There’.
Boomkat Product Review:
Cult dream-weaver and occasional Grouper bandmate Ilyas Ahmed works his magic with heightened attention to spectral, acousmatic detail on his 2nd album for Geographic North - RIYL Loren Connors, Vini Reilly, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Grouper, Roy Montgomery.
Somewhere on a Venn diagram intersecting blues, folk, and ambient, Ilyas Ahmed’s humbly beautiful body of work is variously regarded as a solo artist and as a member of Visitors with Liz Harris aka Grouper, as well as a member of Grails and a recent collaborator with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Pakistan-born, Portland-based strummer has quietly trekked out for nearly 20 years since his earliest recordings, and ‘A Dream of Another’ finds him embedded in his sound, following calm lines of extended melodic thought into an enriched aether, with the choice of room recorded acoustics and playing a strong supporting role for his style of lyrically instrumental narration.
At this point Ahmed is confident enough to strip it all right back to a most nakedly honest yet hallucinatory evocation of a waking dream. There’s a highly visual sense of synaesthesia at play in the opening passage of loner piano gradually immolated by distortion while bells ring in the distance on ‘Etched in Smoke’, establishing a stark dimension which he inhabits with more romantic poignance on ‘Nasty Man’, while the dusty room swaddles his strings on ‘Twice the Memory’.
When he strums into the tremulous higher registers to a ticking vintage drum machine on ‘Little Devil’, The Durutti Column comparisons are unavoidable, and likewise worthy of analogs to Loren Connors on the spectral blues of ‘Waves’. But it really all comes together with a discreet, personalised flourish on the 10 minute, chamber-like ambient folk denouement ‘A Dream of Something’, harmonising his guitar with heavenly layered synth strings and keys that set the scalp tingling, passing out into elegiac bliss on ‘Imagine There’.
Limited edition Blue and white smoke/swirl vinyl, includes a download of the album dropped to your account. Mastered by Chuck Johnson, designed by Farbod Kokabi
Out of Stock
Boomkat Product Review:
Cult dream-weaver and occasional Grouper bandmate Ilyas Ahmed works his magic with heightened attention to spectral, acousmatic detail on his 2nd album for Geographic North - RIYL Loren Connors, Vini Reilly, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Grouper, Roy Montgomery.
Somewhere on a Venn diagram intersecting blues, folk, and ambient, Ilyas Ahmed’s humbly beautiful body of work is variously regarded as a solo artist and as a member of Visitors with Liz Harris aka Grouper, as well as a member of Grails and a recent collaborator with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Pakistan-born, Portland-based strummer has quietly trekked out for nearly 20 years since his earliest recordings, and ‘A Dream of Another’ finds him embedded in his sound, following calm lines of extended melodic thought into an enriched aether, with the choice of room recorded acoustics and playing a strong supporting role for his style of lyrically instrumental narration.
At this point Ahmed is confident enough to strip it all right back to a most nakedly honest yet hallucinatory evocation of a waking dream. There’s a highly visual sense of synaesthesia at play in the opening passage of loner piano gradually immolated by distortion while bells ring in the distance on ‘Etched in Smoke’, establishing a stark dimension which he inhabits with more romantic poignance on ‘Nasty Man’, while the dusty room swaddles his strings on ‘Twice the Memory’.
When he strums into the tremulous higher registers to a ticking vintage drum machine on ‘Little Devil’, The Durutti Column comparisons are unavoidable, and likewise worthy of analogs to Loren Connors on the spectral blues of ‘Waves’. But it really all comes together with a discreet, personalised flourish on the 10 minute, chamber-like ambient folk denouement ‘A Dream of Something’, harmonising his guitar with heavenly layered synth strings and keys that set the scalp tingling, passing out into elegiac bliss on ‘Imagine There’.
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