Allison Cameron & Scott Thomson - Platanus [Ambiances Magnetiques]

Another relatively recent release on the Ambiances Magnetiques label is "Platanus", the new collaborational three track album affair conceived by composer and performer Allison Cameron and trombone player Scott Thomson which has been released on April 17th, 2k26. Over the course of approx. 58 minutes total playtime Cameron employs an array of a so-called crackle synthesizer, keyboards and tapes on all three compositions, with the opening piece "Taproot" introducing playful, tentative and certainly friendly and curious electronic bleepings and plinkerings of what could be described as electroacoustic-adjacent nature later leading into twangy off-kilter melancholia all backed by a trombone performance that is almost vocal, yet tongue-in-cheek, somewhat sad and, on a personal note, reminiscent of experimental stop-motion movies we watched in the late 90s subsequently followed by "Bark", an extended and, again, deeply melancholia driven take on Avantgarde Jazz improvisation with a deep listening twist which evolves towards a rather unexpected, heavenly, yet vibrating and slightly disharmonic end section whereas the concluding - and longest... - piece named "Limbing" pairs detailed micromovents, spatiality and isolationism, rasping, chafing surface noises fused with a deep metallic minimalism which evokes faint memories of records like Aube's "Deglaze" for long-standing fans of experiemntal electro-acoustic sound research paired with more playful and cheeky trombone vocalisms which turns this final cut into our personal favorite on this well recommended longplayer. Go check.

Album artwork on Instagram!