The sound of melting snow falling from mountain trees gives way to lush, hypnotic washes of ethereal tones and, as in a dream, we find ourselves swept up into the night sky, soaring above the mountaintops, beneath the silver moon. ‘Khonsu’ – named after the Egyptian moon god, and also meaning ‘traveller’ – is made up of two long-form pieces of delicate, emotional, ambient dronescapes.
Khonsu is the newest release by prolific sound artist, Nicholas Maloney a.k.a. Blanket Swimming. It was composed during a challenging, confusing, and transitional time for Nicholas, and one can sense that their heart and soul was poured into the pieces, as they are imbued with hope and longing in equal measure. Drift into the starlit sky with the exceptionally beautiful sounds of Khonsu.
Credits
All music by Nicholas Maloney
Artwork by Elise Wilson
Layout by Timothy Allen
© 2024 Blanket Swimming
REVIEWS
New from Perceptual Tapes is a two-song, thirty-three minute hypnotic passage through the felt experiences of Missouri-based ambient artist Blanket Swimming. “Khonsu” — named after the Egyptian god — is a slowly evolving journey through the transient nature of emotions and the experiences we move through from moment to moment. It’s richly layered with textured drones, cavernous pad synths, looping hypnotic patterns, and wandering motifs with varying depths of expression. “Khonsu” is meditative and hypnotic, evolving slowly like the seasons themselves, with changes as subtle as shifts in the daylight from one moment to the next. I highly recommend this excellent musical journey and you owe it to yourself to queue this up in your playlists. "Khonsu" by Blanket Swimming is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://blanketswimming.bandcamp.com.
Michael Tangen
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The American artist Nicholas Maloney is the man behind the Blanket Swimming project, which has been running since 2015 and has now produced over 100 albums. The album Khonsu consists of two long dronescapes. Cave above, unfurling begins with the sound of melting snow falling from mountain trees and transitions into a soft, synth-laden ambient drone. The second long track, which gives the album its name, also starts with a beautiful sound of nature, but then becomes a touch darker and, in my opinion, more melancholy.
Christian Wirrwitz
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One of many projects for Kansas City producer Nicholas Maloney, his work as Blanket Swimming dates back to 2015, with this latest work coming up as a nice find on Tasmania's Perceptual Tapes, a reliable landing spot for homespun drift variations. The name might be an aqueous take on the magic carpet ride, and indeed the indeterminate flow of water features in the dissonant pitch of these two extended pieces. Named after the Ancient Egyptian god of the moon, Khonsu sees Maloney in accord with the restless cycles of nature as his muse and perhaps reflecting how the moon’s distance offers only a temporal light to capture it, with the music evoking both the fragility and comfort of our place within the void.
Andrew Khedoori