I do not know how the introductory track of Daenn’s release Avva on the Japanese On-Li netlabel is meant to be interpreted, but were I to describe a scenery that comes into my mind for the song Xi, it would consist of the following impressions: Veils of fog are hanging over empty streets, schematic halos of laterns, their reflections bleach the drizzle wet plaster and dark purple skies pick up the sea of lights of a nearby city. In the midst of the scenery faint sketches of a figure are swallowed by the wavering white mass. Voices, footsteps and a soaring head of emptiness.

Chorus-drenched sequences of ambiguity, sometimes accompanied by feedback, low rumble or catchy overtones are floating down a stream of unconsciousness and bring back melancholic memories of solitude. Soundscapes may not necessarily last during the course of Avva, like nourai tube with some refreshing feedback that blows away the sorrow of the previous tracks. Just by the the time some chords are emerging a hard cut follows and we are thrown into the next scenery of sinister silence. But no grinding wall of noise a la Merzbow follows up as catharsis. Instead, hello portraits a weird bleeping environment of rumbling echo loops and sample snippets. Did we lose our way? It seems not: In re tou we return back to a friendly world with happily twittering birds. Somewhere in the neighbourhood a piano picks up the introduction’s ambiguous scenery with hammering tones and clouds temporarily cover the the sun on a pale milky sky. A click and crackle loop occurs and refuses to integrate into Daenn’s music, thus remaining an unrelated artifact isolated by its own choice.

With Avva, Daenn and the On-Li netlabel delivered a pretty decent release that does not lose its charme even after several times of repeated listening, thus I can safely recommend it for downloading.