Review: Phaeleh Gives Back with “Somnus”

–Reviewed by Mike Hogan

I’ve always been very impressed with how Phaeleh could accomplish so much using so little. All of his tracks are so minimalistic, yet so full. Take “Here Comes the Sun” off his 2013 full length, Tides, the majority of the song is just a drum track, a very simple bass line, vocals, and some very subtle atmospherics layered way in the back of the track. But it never feels like that little. It seems like a complete, complex track, one that actually feels a lot more whole than most other tracks out there.

I’d attribute this to his impeccable ability to use all the space within the mix, his drum tracks alone fill up the entire sound stage, creating colossal depth while never sounding artificial. His bass lines work the same way, they’re never complex, they’re never “filthy”, they’re just solid, clean bass lines that create an auditory depth of field that is absolutely unrivaled. So many artists think more is more, filling their track with 120 different layers, but when it comes to Phaeleh, less is indeed more.

So of course, an ambient album certainly seems like it would be right up his alley, right? Well, obviously he has the talent to pull it off, no one has any room to question that, but I was genuinely curious as to how it would turn out; it would be different, that was for sure. His drums are always so involved in the track, and make up such a large portion of the mix, I wasn’t sure how things would sound without his unmistakable syncopated, panning hi hats, and toms or Latin percussion setting a subtle, driving rhythm beneath the traditional drum tracks.

It certainly is different than the sort of thing we’re used to from him, but Somnus – the free ambient album he released a few weeks back as a thank you to his fans – is undeniably Phaeleh. I’m personally a big fan of any sort of ambient, downtempo, post-rock, etc music, basically any thing that isn’t much of anything, so I happen to like the sort of thing that most people would describe as “boring” or “that’s not even music”, but even I will admit that there is a huge difference between a good and a bad ambient album.

A bad ambient album is little more than a few sparse sounds, laid out sporadically, but frequent enough to perhaps remind the user that they aren’t just listening to silence. A good ambient album, a truly good one, is much more than that, in fact, if you really pay attention you’ll realize that it usually occupies a much bigger soundscape than your traditional album. They create this space, this vast expanse, and then fill it with a sort of ebbing and flowing blanket of clean, full tones. These tones are never too harsh, never too sparse; they simply create floating clouds of relaxing, but complete music. And that is a very difficult thing to do.

The latter is precisely what Somnus is. Phaeleh has created this absolutely massive soundscape, much like he does with his downtempo tracks, but even bigger in this case, and filled them out perfectly. Which is absolutely amazing considering he’s only ever using about two or three parts at a time on any given track. What’s perhaps even more amazing though, is that these are all tracks were created at different times – Phaeleh noted on his Facebook that these are all tracks he’s worked on over the last 10 years or so – and yet, this doesn’t sound like a collection of songs, this sounds like one great, encompassing work; it sounds like one piece merely broken up into movements. The album is never fractured in between tracks, the flow is never interrupted, it acts as the perfect ambient composition; diverse and captivating, but cohesive and relaxing. While this is different from what we’ve come to expect from Phaeleh, it is by no means a surprise, it is another example of his prodigious awareness of the musical space around him, showing us once again, that if you know what you’re doing, you really can create so much with so little.

Again, this is a free album that Phaeleh released for his fans, so you owe it to yourself to check it out. You can download it right now from his Bandcamp page.
Additionally, be sure to check out the tour dates and pick up tickets for Phaeleh’s upcoming “A World Without” North American Tour supporting his upcoming EP of the same name, right here.