A spacious, meditative enthrallment shows across AGNOSIAREIGN, an ambient drone album from New Jersey-based artist Cementation Anxiety. The production is consistent in its gently unraveling structural beauty, while also emphasizing an enjoyable tonal range — from the caressing lushness of “Ghosts of Glass” to the more raucously enjoyable “Mirage Beside,” where glistening acoustics swell into blaringly gorgeous distortion. The artist cites a broad range of styles as inspirations, from “death industrial to Japanese ambient,” and it shows in the enjoyable tonal variety, which is propelled by dynamic guitar work.
Thematically, observations on the very human nature of “knowing and unknowing,” persist in the visuals and song titles; this is echoed especially in tracks like the haunting “Life is ebbing” | “Nothing is nothing” — which features particularly striking acoustic components in the final minute. “Waking Warmth” is another standout, producing an airy effervescence in the droning envelopment and serenely enchanting tonal direction.
“Being in a state of confusion of knowing and unknowing is inherently human,” the artist explains. “And I endeavor to capture a glimmer of this state, into which the listener could fall and even find comfort, somehow.”
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“Waking Warmth” is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Obscure Ambient.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup, as part of the artist’s promotional campaign.
