CD, West Audio Music, 2009
www.athana.no
Stuff gets sent out and arrives at our office. From that moment on it is a matter of time before the release gets the attention it deserves. This particular release by the Norwegian Athana got way more attention it actually deserved. Too make a long story short: this CD isn’t bad is you like ‘electronic music’ but for me – your humble reviewer who is sort of specialized in ambient and drones – well, it’s definitely not good either.
The music has little bits of everything: a little minimal techno, a little jazz, a little ritual, some experiments and because of all these aspects the release as a whole is faceless. Therefore if you like electronic music in general, this is a CD you will play in the background while you’re baking a cake or doing the dishes.
An elaborated sheet with all the contributors to this album (17 in total) doesn’t make the music any better. This is an example of music for the masses: and the masses aren’t used to thinking, they are only capable of being entertained.
One final remark and that is that popping the CD in the computer and opening iTunes will reveal ‘pop’ as the genre under which it is categorized. And even though this release is too weird to be called ‘pop’, it definitely will not fit under ‘ambient’ as the title suggests.
[6/10]
— Bauke van der Wal