SAM WENC and Carl Laukkanen, while resident in that cultural hub in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, got together and, sharing an interest in the textures and spaces of slow-moving ambient electronica, got together and laid down three albums’ worth of exploration of sonics as RON.
Together they developed a language of sound at the interstice where evolving, organic electronica fuses with acoustic instruments; they’ve just dropped a video for “What Can The Feeling”, taken from their forthcoming cassette release of the same name; have a watch and a listen; it’s like they take the tonal palette of our two favourite Lowlands Scottish brothers and, heeding the advice of turn-of-the-21st Tresor minimalist TV Victor, slow it right down (check out his 70-minute track, “Agai”).
It unfolds beautifully at a glacial pace, swoops and weaves, winds like bindweed, wraps you up warm in ever-shifting sustain. You’ll pick up the ghost of field recordings, all manner of tronica; a pedal steel.
The sombre, introspective (but to me, ultimately comforting) surrealism plays out evocatively against the accompanying visuals: a collage of VHS clips including fireworks, cityscapes, and house construction; lo-fi memory fragments left timecoded, all filmed, spliced and directed by Patrick Robinson.
Sam’s since crossed coasts to live in New York, but he said: “We are collaborating over e-mail currently, with plans to make new music this way!
“[This] album was from our final recording session while I was still living in Portland.
“We both have our own music projects (mine is called Post Moves and Carl’s is called Gulch) but with RON, we’re both hoping to continue to make patient and longform music.”
Let’s hope so; What Can The Feeling is a lovely driftscape to pop into your cassette deck when you need to detach and cocoon.
RON’s What Can The Feeling will be released by Moonvillain on digital and cassette formats on November 3rd; you can purchase your preferred format over at the label’s Bandcamp page, here.
