Bleep

Los-Angeles-based producer and saxophonist Brian Simon returns with his second album as Anenon on his own Non Projects imprint. A sub label of LA’s Alpha Pup Records, the Red Bull Music Academy alumnus founded the label as a platform for the elusive musical area between electronic, free jazz, ambient and folk. It is on these grounds that Simon resumes his colourful style on his second full-length. Sagrada is a collection of dynamic progressions, with the saxophone telling the album’s narrative as its thread. ‘Shibaura’ attacks in swelling thrusts. Simon achieves a moving mellow atmosphere with his detailed and versatile production: the reverberant synths and crystal-clear beat of the single ‘Karma’ contain associations with fellow Californian producer Tycho; on tracks like ‘Aurora’ he highlights the variations of texture through analogue sounding piano, crackling and a mixture of lo-fi and hi-fi drum sounds. The nervous title track is an instance of the inner dynamic of the album, juxtaposed with the ambient, floating structures of ‘Emblem’. Simon’s ideas have become more epic, have escaped their intricacy into a larger scale, yet haven’t lost that intimate immediacy that make his productions so appealing.