Pastoral Blend is something new, and quite different from N Kramer and Magnus Bang Olsen aka The Zenmenn. Where the pair’s previous releases on Music From Memory have borne big Brazilian / Tropicalia and Japanese / City Pop influences, plus been largely song based, their latest long-player is an avant garde ambient adventure. 

Based around Kramer’s processing of Bang Olsen’s pedal steel, the album begins as abstract blips and glitches. It takes a while to actually identify the sonic source. The instrument’s melodies are manhandled, chopped and screwed. Its aching arcs cut short, paused, stuttered, stretched and twisted, before being allowed to continue. Its bent notes bent even further, into strange serene shapes. Creating a broken blues-y Americana. A deconstructed mid-western dustbowl folk. 

The set has a strong, live improvised vibe, slowly evolving, unfurling. Refashioned in a Fennesz-esque fashion, recalling Motion Graphics, or Visible Cloaks, sunstroked, in a hammock. Weathered adds what could be a reed, pulling in comparisons to fellow laidback electro-acoustic travellers, Wilson Tanner.

Initially, this all sounds quite alien, but if listened to from start to finish it gradually, kinda magically becomes much more accessible, as you ears and mind become attuned to the radical, but nonetheless relaxing rearrangements. A modern mediative music, detailed with delicate digital treatments, it’s something you need to take a few minutes to immerse yourself in. As the album proceeds the pieces are still heavily processed, but the melodies less interrupted. Track by track this technique hooks you until your rewarded with Harvest, the final, elegant and hypnotic 8-minute opus. 

N Kramer & Magnus Bang Olsen’s Pastoral Blend can be ordered directly from Music From Memory.