The Wire (UK)

This jewel-like release is the product of a collaboration restored reather than newly minted. The relationship between Ysatis and Deupree dates back to the early 1990s, when the pair’s various projects including SETI and Futique, not to mention a sound design project for architect Toyo Ito’s Tower of Winds building in Yokohama. Their first work together after more than a decade has a winningly tentative quality: over the course of this brief, four track collection, ideas blossom and confidence builds as musical tendrils are first suggested, then accepted, then explored. The sounds for the most part are soft, the melodies diffident and unresolved, with plucked notes from autoharp or acoustic guitar hanging, glittering, among clouds of analogue synthesis. But there’s a genuine sense of progress: this is music making, not Ambient aimlessness. Indeed, a couple of tracks approach the condition of song: both “Listen to the Morning Sleeping” and “The Youthful Sea” feature Ysatis’ seldom heard vocals, and his breathy murmur provides an undemonstrative extra dimension. On this evidence, Ysatis & Deupree should be planning another, more substantial reunion. (Chris Sharp)