Vessels to Motherland Channel the Ambient Spirit of the City at Night on “ymnoala”

Vessels to Motherland, photo courtesy the artists

Vessels to Motherland released its latest album LIVE IN BROOKLYN on February 3, 2023. Rather than a traditional live album as the title might suggest it’s an attempt to convey a journey across roughly an hour in familiar places but focusing on elements we sense but often tune out. It is the inverse of the way some ambient albums are conceived in drawing out attention to these environmental details. Each track is an anagram of “anomaly” excepting the closing track with that exact title. The opening song “ymnoala” pairs the sound of a space mission with echoing metallic string sounds, what sounds like coils being bowed at times, a ratchety noise maker, lonely synth drones resonating through an open space, nearly chaotic zither sent through natural reverb. It’s all both otherworldly and intimately familiar like the soundtrack to an industrial part of town at night with mysterious activity going on around you unseen but heard and felt. And the rest of the album is a similarly abstract yet tactile vein. Listen to “ymnoala” on Spotify and follow Vessels to Motherland at the links below.