Arid Landscapes - Arid Landscapes [Signal Chain Records 001]

One of the two surviving albums out of a multi-album parcel sent to us by the Canadian promo agency Riparian Media lately is the self-titled debut by the duo that is Arid Landscapes, released on September 19th, 2k25 via the freshly launched label named Signal Chain Records as the imprints cat.no. 001. Comprised of guitar player Dan Pitt and keyboardist Noah-Franche Nolan Arid Landscapes cater a set of ten brand new pieces rolled out over a total playtime of 53 minutes, bringing forward a soft and pillowing, yet somewhat nervous and restless Ambient-informed landscape from very the start of the opener prelude which evokes memories of Oval's "Systemisch" album mainly due to its fluttering, destabilized guitars whereas the follow up that is "Rmtk" summons a reather hypnotic and spine-tingling presence in terms of ever intensifying rhythmic loops and "Weathered" provides a stark contrast, being based on plucked, almost chiming string tones which are seemingly live processed electronically and, over the tracks total playtime of 12+ minutes, start to slowly defragment in an ever escalating manner. Furthermore "Union" indulges in slightly glitched out and brittle Deep Listening Music somewhat reminscent of echoes of echoes of Deuter's most minimal Proto-Ambient / Berlin School pieces whilst "The Dust Storm" is a on rather funky, strumming and folksy tip before its inherent rhythms are falling apart in a sea of overlapping echoes and delays and the final cut that is "The Optimist" almost touches base with super dreamy Post-PostRock and PopAmbient most likely to be highly appreciated by fans of intimate Instrumental Folk or early Klimek and the likes of just to name a few. If this, or probably PostRock in general is something you gravitate to this album might be worth your while.

Album artwork on Instagram!