3 out of 5

Label: Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press

Produced by: Adam Hilton (recorded, mixed by)

A semi-stream of ambience and rumbles, this relatively short set by the trio of Tatsuya Nakatani, Makoto Kawabata, and Henna Chou shimmers its way through intriguingly discordant states in a distracted fashion that I imagine works best for short attention spans. If that makes things sound overly fractious – no; Perigee, excepting some sporadically noisier flourishes, is pretty restrained, to the extent that rarely will you actively hear everyone contributing at once, with the production and compositions erring toward silence, and a restless stillness.

…Okay, I’ve used some juxtaposed terms in describing this album, and that’s honestly what drives most of its calm: while it is a mostly muted affair, and often quite contemplative and soothing, it is also very restless, using a percussion led slow-rolled free jazz to creep around the fringes of feeling, and rhythm. Sounds trickle through; guitar and strings and electronics are considerations, and not full-on additions. This helpfully informs the runtime, which gets in and out once a thread has sufficiently raveled or unraveled, but there’s also the curiosity of how this was stitched together from three different sets, leading to some tracks cutting out and cutting off the immersion allowed by its organicness.

Given space and patience, it’s easy to warm to Perigee, though not so much that it breaches being more affecting than it is interesting.