Brilliant ideas rarely visit people in moments of triumph. For example, Charles Darwin honed the theory of natural selection not at banquets, but during monotonous walks along the gravel path near his home. But the list of those who caught enlightenment in the most inappropriate (or too mundane) moments can go on endlessly. Often extraordinary ideas hide in the ordinary. They come not to those who speak louder, but to those who look and listen more carefully. When no one is applauding. When alone with one’s thoughts. And sometimes it’s enough to lie on the floor in a hallway, raise your head and understand why the ventilation noise sounds cooler than everything you tried to compose during the week. Then comes the thought: maybe the problem is not in the absence of ideas, but in the fact that the best of them are already humming in the walls.
That’s how “Air Vent Lullabies”, a new EP from silent collision, came about. Imagine, its main character is a ventilation opening. Lying on the floor at some point, the author realized: the even, unperturbed hum from the grille in the wall does not irritate, but on the contrary it is very musical. It never goes out of tune, doesn’t demand a fee and is damnably calm – the ideal soundtrack for late night. Quiet, stable, noticeable enough so that thoughts don’t scatter all over the place. And so in the EP “Air Vent Lullabies” silent collision makes an attempt to catch precisely this moment. Not to copy, but to take directly and include ventilation sounds in the recording: they were filtered, stretched, resonances and notes were sought in them that sound stable and lulling. That’s why he decided not to imitate the sound, but to give it a microphone. The result was a study of sound in six tracks, the musician transforms technical defects and background noise into a full-fledged musical instrument.
Well, now, lie on the floor, prick up your ears and turn on your imagination. The program opens with the track “Look At The Sky”, in its musical space the only constant is creative freedom. Sound becomes a means of self-knowledge. It’s hard to call this dance music, since nothing urges you to move. The rhythm section rather calms, leading into a blissful state in which one wants to let go of all everyday problems and relax. And when the body finally stops seeking movement – what remains is the physiological rhythm of rest, which is precisely what laid the foundation of the second track. “Exhale, Inhale” – the very name speaks of the rhythm of breathing. Wave-like tides of sound imitate a deep inhale and a slow exhale. You know, this is a moment of pure grounding. silent collision cuts off excess informational noise, leaving the listener alone with low frequencies. Music under which you finally manage to be in no hurry anywhere.
Thus “With The Stars” sounds detached, the harsh rumble of ventilation gives way to blurred sinusoids and a soft hum. The track sounds like a defocused cosmic landscape: instead of sharp attacks – gradual entries (fades) and high-frequency textures that create the effect of a sound cocoon, completely isolating from external noise. A boundless starry sky. And on our horizon is the track “Empty Hallway, 4:14am” – a point of ultimate honesty. The time when the city quiets down and the walls begin to “sound”. The track features lo-fi roughness and the resonance of empty space. A kind of cinematic study of isolation, familiar to many, when before dawn sleep suddenly retreats and you begin to listen to the echo of your own thoughts.
And here is the title track “Air Vent Lullaby” – an industrial lullaby. silent collision transforms the monotonous vibration of ventilation into a hypnotic melody. An example of how to find music in the noise of household appliances and turn an ordinary background into a safe refuge. For the finale the author offers “Darkness Within Darkness” – a melancholic trance. The track is built on the slow decay of sound going down to the very bottom of the spectrum. Instead of the usual development – a gradual disintegration of sound into elementary particles. The concluding chords leave a long aftertaste and silence.
“Air Vent Lullabies” exists in the tradition established by Brian Eno: music as environment, not message. But if Eno worked with abstraction, silent collision works with a document – a specific place, a specific sound, a specific time of day. Based on authenticity, the EP blossoms on imperfection, combining analog warmth and lo-fi roughness with digital clarity. The musician found beauty in the unusual. This is his precision: not mood in general, not calm in principle, but the even hum from the grille in the wall. It’s great that electronic music can be calm, detached and is not necessarily an obligatory attribute of a disco, but a soft accompaniment to everyday life.
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