By Keith Walsh
From New Orleans, Louisiana comes the awe inspiring ambient music of Glass Machine, the project of Nadia Prupis. Composed on a computer running Ableton, there’s a warm ethereal feel and a sense of wonder to the tunes. Despite the album title Box Of Darkness which might initially suggest horror, there’s much more going on across the eight-song collection.
Piano-like sounds are favored here, with the opener “Hundreds Of Extra Hours” and “Astral Field Guide” resembling the sounds of a music box, but with the greater fidelity afforded by synthesis. As Prupis told me in an interview conducted via email, “Acoustic piano to me has this really intoxicating quality to its sound and presence, which I think comes from both the tactile elements like chord layering, but also from just how evocative and rhythmic and immersive it is experientially…. If you listen to some of the piano in Blood Orange’s music and Devonté Hynes’ film scores, or Park Hye Jin’s track “Call Me,” or Aphex Twin’s piano-centric pieces, or Philip Glass who I partially named myself after, a lot of their work is really emblematic of that feeling to me.” (My complete interview with Nadia is at Popular Culture Beat.)
The third track “Glitch Mirror” does lean into the darkness a little bit more, with some more sequenced or random piano sounds. “Funny How It Goes” takes some unusual melodic turns, where major and minor melt into one, not in the sentimental way of pop songs. “A Trip To The Moon” is whimsical and ethereal with some strange world beat percussion but altered in novel ways, as well as some glitches.
“Chaos Garden” uses some random arpeggiation and some glitch percussion, like a new age meditation with some anxiety leaking in. “Eight Of Cups” features string synths and a gentle pulsing drum track, reminded me somewhat of Peter Gabriel’s ambient-flavored songs. “Neptune” is a majestic little piano-based piece that has a slight march like rhythm and washes of seemingly acoustic piano reverb.
In addition to Peter Gabriel, I also hear the influence, or appearance of an influence of the ambient music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Harold Budd, and Brian Eno. The sonic palette for Box Of Darkness, which was composed in Abelton, is completely unique and special. Prupis has taken great care to select and craft sounds that haven’t really been heard before. As Prupis told me in our interview, she was inspired by Philip Glass, although I think she has smartly avoided the sentimentality of that composer.
As Prupis told me: ” I wouldn’t say I’m influenced by fantasy films per se, but I definitely see where some themes could overlap – I get inspired a lot by esoteric subject matter like the occult, psychic power, dreams, intuition, tarot, dimensional portals, and these other sort of mystical subjects and aesthetics.”
“Box Of Darkness” is a worthy addition to the ambient and new age genres, a touch more thematic than ambient music for spas, but it’s the drama and sense of wonder that makes this second album by Glass Machine shine so brightly. Box Of Darkness is On Optik Muzak.
‘Box Of Darkness’ by Glass Machine On Bandcamp
‘Metasynthesis’ by Glass Machine On Bandcamp
Optik Muzak On Bandcamp
Q and A With Nadia Prupis Of Glass Machine At Popular Culture Beat
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