Ambient music is pretty boring I guess but we’re ok with that. Not to knock Volodja Brodsky: boring is the other side of beautiful and Whispering Ln. demonstrates that well. Cue haunting thereminesque synths drifting through the skyline, frozen reverbs filling every inhabitable zone between the speakers. Cue overly tonal harmonies and swooshes of cuddly white noise, the distant caress of the worlds nicest printer.
It’s a good recipe nonetheless – Brodsky is clearly more concerned with seeking nice sounds from their synthesiser than living in a PaulStretch preset, which instantly elevates them above 63% of ambient musicians. And for that approach, Whispering Ln. at times stretches out a little, no longer resigned to being a mere genre piece and, rather pleasingly, sound momentarily like Barry Truax or some other 70’s synth pioneer.
Sure, Serenade of Secrets is a bit silly, all twee synth nostalgia and chromatic plucks, but White Sea takes its fucking time and is all the better for it: an expansive, compromised drone interspersed with meandering tones that, at times, approximate more odd than beautiful. It’s the kind of track that gets its point across in under a minute but lasts for 11 – succeeding in lulling its listener into a neatly structured sound world through the application of time.
Ambient music? Sure. But Whispering Ln. is something more too – a nod back to early synthesis and an effort not simply to be drawn out, but explore the slow and the methodical in a manner that eschews any accusation of boredom. Genre-fans will find much to love – and anyone else willing to give it the time may discover something pretty special too.
Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully
meansmagazine.com 
