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Review: Minute of Arc – Made of Amber (2018)

It has been a while since I ran into an album that I had to listen to over 10 times to really like. This usually means there's something subtle going on, so it's worth writing about it. Part of the reason this is so interesting is the history of the artist who composed it. So this review will be broken into two parts: one with a brief history leading up to it, and one with the review.

Where did Minute of Arc come from?

It is one of the monikers of Arjen Schat, an artist residing in the Netherlands. His previous output was released under two names: "Ohrwert", and "Arjen Schat". Ohrwert releases were either Dub Techno, heavy Ambient, or somewhere between the two, while Arjen Schat releases were Ambient or Sequential Ambient.

Being Dub Techno, the Ohrwert releases usually had consistent beats with minimalist dubbiness layered on top. But there was a breadth the styles used that meant Ohrwert's catalog was anything but narrow; a notable exception was the Dark Ambient release, DRON. Here is a list of examples showing the breadth of music released under this moniker. As always, good headphones or a good sound system are recommended for listening.

Further toward the Dub Techno end of the spectrum:
Further toward the Ambient end of the spectrum:
Concurrent with the Ohrwert releases was a long string of Ambient or Sequential Ambient releases under his real name. They had a more ethereal quality, and often had subtly changing sequences of notes threaded through them:
Then, (not quite) out of nowhere, the Minute of Arc moniker appeared with the first release, Grit EP. Here is one track from Grit EP, showing how radically different this is from the preceeding examples.
  • Grit from Grit EP (2018)
The moment that glitchy noise pops in at the very start, we know we are in new musical territory. The use of Jomox Xbase 999 (an analog drum computer with similarities to the venerable Roland 909) drum sounds is rare for Ohrwert releases, as is the busy nature of the percussion section.

Review of Made of Amber

The first full-length Minute of Arc release was Made of Amber, later in 2018. The moment the opener started, I could tell this was not like any of the releases under Arjen's other two monikers. It had a harsh feel to the synth line, and busy percussion work. Around 35 seconds a backing ambient section came in, and it was the most recognizable as possibly being from an Arjen Schat release.

As Fly Low developed, it continued to stake out new ground. Unheard in other releases were several digitally-harsh gaps in the sound, more glitchy components, high-frequency sample hits, along with a few frequency drops that sounded like something from a Hip-Hop release. All of these elements threw me out of my comfort zone even though we had been warned that MoA releases were too different from Ohrwert output to release under that name.

High Rise continued to push me beyond what I expected with a collage of elements that tonally were similar to Arjen Schat sequences, but with timbres that were jarring. The busy percussion work sounds like what you might get if you hooked up one of those mathematical sequences to a drum machine. Even so, it never wandered so far from the tempo that I felt lost, as I might with some Autechre compositions.

Altis began with a very Arjen Schat-like sequence, and added to and changed that sequence over the course of the track. However, harsh percussion sounds with a complex beat almost immediately got laid on top for a very different sound. Another one of those frequency drops appeared near the end, with another bracketing the leadout.

The rest of the album continues like this, mixing the newer more aggressive sound with some elements from more familiar territory. Latrik is the most like an Arjen Schat release, but the drum sounds used firmly place it with MoA. While I never disliked any of this album, I needed enough time to digest this new approach to composition to fully appreciate the quality of the compositions.

I recommend this release to anyone looking for something unusual, as it is a blend of several styles that makes a new cohesive whole.

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