Review of Park [12k3037]

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When listening to “Park”, the latest release by Copenhagen-based duo MM Works (Mathias Lystbaek and Mads Lassen), you might imagine yourself in a liminal space – part urban refuge, part untouched wilderness. This album, recorded in the transitional bloom of Danish early spring, is a whispered dialogue between the environment, memory, and the fleeting moments we often overlook.

Lystbaek and Lassen, working with drums, guitar, flute, and electronics, craft a sound that feels simultaneously vast and intimate. Their improvisations are alive, like shifting weather patterns, yet their use of looping tones and gentle electronics anchors the ephemeral in quiet, methodical patterns. The result? A record that feels like breathing: rhythmic and involuntary, but conscious in its stillness.

The tracks unfold like a walk through an overgrown, forgotten park where nature reclaims its dominion over structure. “Bloom” opens the album with the hesitant stirrings of life after frost, its layers of sound unfurling with the tentative assurance of spring’s first blossoms. By the time we reach “Day 01”, the mood brightens with soft, shimmering tones that suggest sunlight playing through leaves.

The title track, “Park”, is a standout. Here, MM Works transforms their instruments into whispers of the world around them – fragments of bird calls, distant footsteps, and the hum of the city blurred into a contemplative haze. It’s an ode to shared solitude, the kind of space where people pass each other without speaking, connected by their mutual presence.

But “Park” isn’t all light and renewal. Tracks like “Mist” and “Wither” delve into the shadowed corners of transition. “Mist” envelops the listener in uncertainty, its sounds drifting like fog over a still lake, while “Wither” reflects on decay with a quiet acceptance that feels less like mourning and more like acknowledgment of life’s cyclical nature.

The album closes with “Another View”, a piece that feels like stepping back to take in the entirety of the journey. There’s resolution here – not in the form of grand conclusions, but in the sense of having witnessed something deeply personal and transformative.

“Park” is an album that rewards attention, inviting you to sink into its understated beauty and let the spaces between the notes speak as loudly as the music itself. It’s a reminder that even in the stillness of a park – amid the crumbling paths and encroaching greenery – there’s life, movement, and meaning to be found. MM Works have created a work of quiet resilience, a soundtrack for those moments when the world feels simultaneously too big and just the right size.

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