ivoryHAUS
ivoryHAUS
(Vertebrae Productions)

ivoryHAUS from Philadelphia, PA describes his new 8-song sollection as “chill/downtempo music…largely inspired by things that mellow me out: hiking, stargazing, and the ocean.”

An arpeggiated piano pushes along the sweeps and even occasional stuttering of the first tune, “Orange Sky,” moving along nicely as it does, if not maybe a bit long-winded by its end.

A low metallic click of a clock starts off into the quicker “Sweet Dreams.” As if often the case here there’s more than a hint of Tangerine Dream (hard to deny given the genre) but the piano rings like a bell atop all the other keys layering making this one particularly stunning.

Playing with some wooden percussion sounds, a slow piano, and a specific plucked guitar, we are walking through “Forests.” There is an ever-so-slight sadness to the piano melody in this song that turns out to have quite the cool groove. It all slips into fits and starts of blippin’ and poppin’ synths midway through. I love being surprised like this. Thinking I know where I think a song is going, only to find that it changes up effortlessly.

“Sadr Region,” sees low keys spreading their way through a slightly spooky landscape of glistening key melody, reminiscent of that whistle-like lead in The X-Files theme. And the sweet slow brush of high synth strings begin the last track “Alleviate,” but ivoryHAUS soon introduces huge drums until we get what might be his most impressive beat on all of this debut. A very strong ender to a very ambient mix of tunes.