zakè & Almøst Silent
'Wind Rust'
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ZD-038 |
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ARTIST:
zakè & Almøst Silent ALBUM NAME: Wind Rust CATALOGUE NUMBER: ZD-038 RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2025 |
FORMAT:
Limited Edition CS/CD Box 2-Panel Cardstock Jacket CD Digital Download [at] zakedrone.bandcamp.com DISTRIBUTION: Zakè Drone Recordings [bandcamp], Past Inside the Present D2C [pitp.us] (US), Norman Records (UK), Juno Records (UK), Phonica (UK), HHV (DE), Soundohm (IT), Tobira Records (JP), Linus Records (JP), Redeye (UK) and others. PUBLISHING: © 2024 Zakè Drone Recordings ℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI) CREDITS: Written, recorded, and produced by zakè and Almøst Silent. Recorded in 2024 in the US and France. Textures and roots created at DizzyLab Factory-64 by Almøst Silent. Mixed at Kaleidoscope Tone Studio by zakè. Mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard. Design and layout by zakè. |
about
zakè & Almøst Silent – Wind Rust (Zakè Drone Recordings, 2025)
Wind Rust is the debut collaboration between zakè (aka Zach Frizzell) and Almøst Silent (aka France’s Guy Teixeira), comprising a quartet of long form pieces inspired by weather systems, erosion, and decay. Teixeira’s work spans many genres, but recent ambient drone albums for Post. Recordings and Healing Sound Propagandist brought him closer into Frizzell’s orbit, leading to an extensive exchange of ideas, and a mutual embrace of methods and styles.
On Wind Rust, Teixeira worked primarily with the Lyra-8 by Soma, an analog synth that mimics natural and generative processes, making each creation a kind of “living organism” through interaction with its user. From there, Frizzell employed a novel approach, in which he “gathered dozens of Guy’s stems and began building tracks through random selection, essentially deconstructing his carefully organized puzzle and turning it into something entirely new and different.” The results ably conjure a kind of magic that is far more than the sum of its parts.
“Thence” enters with full force, creating a powerful shudder and sway: bows pull on strings in tactile, sustained tones, while rustling hisses and reverberant field recordings roll across the stereo field. Somewhere beneath the shifting thrum, a delicate flicker of mid range piano provides a melodic anchor point, holding fast amid the swirling storm. On “Dross”, the lashing clatter recedes and the sky opens, as velvety synth harmonies layer in blissful waves. Elements appear and vaporize one by one, forming an impermanent image through barely perceptible changes, and an organic, three-dimensional experience continues to emerge.
“Hewn” features a patient drift of soft pads and fuzzed-out textures, walking the line between harmony and dissonance with grace and gravitas. There is a sustained, comforting mystery here, like navigating a dense forest as daylight disappears and the compass needle grows harder to see. As resolution remains tantalizingly out of reach, gentle static and crumbling analog artifacts consume its final moments. The forceful low end of closing piece, “Quell”, swells and recedes in slow motion, beneath a monumental arrangement of controlled chaos. Each crest brings greater intensity, at times threatening to shred the speakers, until the dark clouds relent and the system eases toward the horizon, leaving a transformed landscape in its wake.
Frizzell describes the environment that guided the album, noting, “These sessions developed amid a backdrop of relentless midwestern winds that lasted for days; from my studio, I could hear the howling outside, and it became an integral part of the final atmosphere.” Such motion can alter mountains across geologic time, or quietly stir the leaves at twilight; rust can reveal the fragility of manmade objects, but also links our world to the asteroids and planets at the farthest reaches of the galaxy. These things exist with or without us, but zakè and Almøst Silent have harnessed their eternal charms into something beautifully human, and truly memorable.
Wind Rust is the debut collaboration between zakè (aka Zach Frizzell) and Almøst Silent (aka France’s Guy Teixeira), comprising a quartet of long form pieces inspired by weather systems, erosion, and decay. Teixeira’s work spans many genres, but recent ambient drone albums for Post. Recordings and Healing Sound Propagandist brought him closer into Frizzell’s orbit, leading to an extensive exchange of ideas, and a mutual embrace of methods and styles.
On Wind Rust, Teixeira worked primarily with the Lyra-8 by Soma, an analog synth that mimics natural and generative processes, making each creation a kind of “living organism” through interaction with its user. From there, Frizzell employed a novel approach, in which he “gathered dozens of Guy’s stems and began building tracks through random selection, essentially deconstructing his carefully organized puzzle and turning it into something entirely new and different.” The results ably conjure a kind of magic that is far more than the sum of its parts.
“Thence” enters with full force, creating a powerful shudder and sway: bows pull on strings in tactile, sustained tones, while rustling hisses and reverberant field recordings roll across the stereo field. Somewhere beneath the shifting thrum, a delicate flicker of mid range piano provides a melodic anchor point, holding fast amid the swirling storm. On “Dross”, the lashing clatter recedes and the sky opens, as velvety synth harmonies layer in blissful waves. Elements appear and vaporize one by one, forming an impermanent image through barely perceptible changes, and an organic, three-dimensional experience continues to emerge.
“Hewn” features a patient drift of soft pads and fuzzed-out textures, walking the line between harmony and dissonance with grace and gravitas. There is a sustained, comforting mystery here, like navigating a dense forest as daylight disappears and the compass needle grows harder to see. As resolution remains tantalizingly out of reach, gentle static and crumbling analog artifacts consume its final moments. The forceful low end of closing piece, “Quell”, swells and recedes in slow motion, beneath a monumental arrangement of controlled chaos. Each crest brings greater intensity, at times threatening to shred the speakers, until the dark clouds relent and the system eases toward the horizon, leaving a transformed landscape in its wake.
Frizzell describes the environment that guided the album, noting, “These sessions developed amid a backdrop of relentless midwestern winds that lasted for days; from my studio, I could hear the howling outside, and it became an integral part of the final atmosphere.” Such motion can alter mountains across geologic time, or quietly stir the leaves at twilight; rust can reveal the fragility of manmade objects, but also links our world to the asteroids and planets at the farthest reaches of the galaxy. These things exist with or without us, but zakè and Almøst Silent have harnessed their eternal charms into something beautifully human, and truly memorable.
pressing
Limited Edition CS/CD Box
Black matchbox-style box set with metallic gold foil printing. Box includes the following: (1) gold shell cassette loaded with FerroMaster C456™ super ferric, ultra-high performance type-1 music grade analog tape secured by a foam inlay. (1) Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a clear polysleeve. Outer dimensions of the box is 138mm x 136mm x 18mm. Inner dimensions of the box tray are 131mm x 131mm x 13mm. Download card included. Pressed and printed in UK. Edition of 100.
2-Panel Cardstock Jacket CD
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 2-panel cardstock jacket. Download card included. Shrinkwrapped. Pressed and printed in Canada. Edition of 100.
Black matchbox-style box set with metallic gold foil printing. Box includes the following: (1) gold shell cassette loaded with FerroMaster C456™ super ferric, ultra-high performance type-1 music grade analog tape secured by a foam inlay. (1) Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a clear polysleeve. Outer dimensions of the box is 138mm x 136mm x 18mm. Inner dimensions of the box tray are 131mm x 131mm x 13mm. Download card included. Pressed and printed in UK. Edition of 100.
2-Panel Cardstock Jacket CD
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 2-panel cardstock jacket. Download card included. Shrinkwrapped. Pressed and printed in Canada. Edition of 100.
