Maciek Szymczuk - Clouds

Maciek Szymczuk is an experimental ambient artist that likes to showcase what it's like to be on the border of dreaming and waking in his music. And it turns out that he isn't half bad at what he does in any sense. No, he is quite the musician. His latest album, Clouds, rather focuses on atmosphere; some songs pertain to the calm and quiet weather, while others tend to fight through weathered storms and the like.

In order to describe this phenomenon that we find in this album, I shall like to point out two different songs. Firstly, I shall talk of the intro song on the album, Cumulus Congestus. It is a really, really nice track with some female vocals making their way into the song. They sound very, very mystical in a sense backed by the ambience in the song as well as with lyrics such as, "I am the daughter of Earth and Water." I absolutely adored this track, and listened to it twice upon first listen.

Then we come along a track such as Nimbostratus (Oblok Rozany). Rather than being fed the nice vocals of the woman and the charming atmosphere, we are given a polarizing song. We are hit with deeper man vocals with a darker tune. It worked well, but not as well as the song I was just speaking of.

And, so, with that said, I can say that when it comes between the darker and the lighter tracks, I admit that I enjoy the lighter songs on the album. That's not bad, but I just wish that both the light and the dark appealed to me as much as the other did, rather than having me lean closer to one side over the other. Still, I liked the album, and will probably wind up listening to it sometime soon again. Nov 16 2013