The Whole World's a Window and I Can't See a Thing, by Pie Are Squared

The Whole World's a Window and I Can't See a Thing

by Pie Are Squared

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home music A stunning, searing vision of how emotive ambient music can be. Grandiose yet fragile and fractured in the most perfect of ways, this is an album I have come back to time and time again. A truly wonderful work from Pie Are Squared.

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Lontano Series / rohsrecords - November batch 2022
• Pie Are Squared - The Whole World's a Window and I Can't See a Thing (CASSETTE)
lontanoseries.bandcamp.com/album/the-whole-worlds-a-window-and-i-cant-see-a-thing

• Krystian Shek - Suddenly (CD)
rohsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/suddenly

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1.	A1. The Whole World's a Window 13:38	buy track
2.	A2. Further Now 06:05	buy track
3.	A3. Further Again (Coda) 03:08	buy track
4.	B1. Tacks Pierce Young Feet 05:44	buy track
5.	B2. Decay in Grace 06:19	buy track
6.	B3. Oscillate Thrice 05:02	buy track
7.	B4. I Can't See a Thing 05:58	buy track

about

Cat.#: LONTANO-TP18
Release date: 18/11/2022
Format: Cassette, Digital

"The Whole World is a Window and I Can’t See a Thing" is flux in slow motion. It is uncertainty and tension disguised as warm blankets of drone and subtle soundscapes. Infinitesimal changes constantly move the songs towards the point of breakup, towards the place where sound begins to lose its defining characteristics and transform into something else. Each track explores this process of constant change using a different sonic palette with sound sources ranging from tape loops to church choirs, analog synthesisers to prepared guitars and software samplers. Distortion is the only glue that binds the tracks. That and the underlying sense of anxiety.

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Pie Are Squared PAINTS STUNNING SOUNDSCAPE ON NEW AMBIENT ALBUM
Entering into Pie Are Squared’s fifth full-length album, “The Whole World’s a Window and I Can’t See a Thing,” becomes less about sight and more about what it means to slow down time. Or as written in the liner notes, “a flux in slow motion,” where Mohammed Ashraf’s ambient soundscape is something of a “warm blanket” of gentle drones, repeating pad sequences, and granular delays.

In a post on Lines (a sound discussion board), Ashraf explains that the starting point for the album was inspired by the workflow he developed for a live mix and Ma3azef radio show. It’s driven by resampling, granular layers and distortion that ebbs and flows on the precipice of generative music.

Released on Lontano Series, a division of Rohs! Record, the album is made in part with generative systems (similar to how a modular synthesiser works). In the opening track “The Whole World’s a Window,” Ashraf writes, “There is a generative aspect to it where a lot of the EQ parameters are controlled by LFO’s (low-frequency oscillation used to create effects such as vibrato, tremolo, and phasing). Using tape loops to church choirs, analogue synthesizers, prepared guitars and software samples, the album is held together by a washed-out distortion and stunning synth swells.

About halfway through the album, we start to access more human or organic-sounding elements in the track “Tacks Pierce Young Feet” with the only guitar-centric piece, which comes as a timely intervention. “I recorded very short guitar phrases, sent them out to two walkmen with 5-second loops, messed around with pitch and speed, then recorded them back,” writes Ashraf.

In “Decay in Grace,” this human element is pushed further, made entirely by using a recording captured at Notre Dame. In the track, we hear a collage combining a deconstructed organ, and a haunted choir as human voices try to break through the distortion.

Despite the closing track’s title, “I Can’t See a Thing,” a washed-out, overexposed image presents itself - with synth lines that cut through the static to create a spacious soundscape and gentle landing pad for an introspective mood felt throughout the album.

The generative aspect of the album makes for an interesting commentary on the intersection of human-made art and software, but where Ashraf shines is in his ability to blend these elements with the result of creating an atmosphere that is as warm as it is ethereal.
(Review by MAHA EL NABAWI for Scene Noise - scenenoise.com/Reviews/Pie-Are-Squared-Paints-Stunning-Soundscape-on-New-Ambient-Album)

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Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series Sardinia, Italy

Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series is a division of Rohs! Records.

Est. 2018 - Berlin, Germany.

The label is now located in Sardinia, Italy.

“Lontano” is an Italian word meaning far away, a definition reflected in the label’s logo—a range of mountains seen from a distance. ... more

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