MUTE
This collaboration between the UK electronic musician Daniel Avery and the Nine Inch Nails member Alessandro Cortini began before the pair had even met. Simply a back and forth, free from pressure, deadline or rules, it allowed a sense of freeform experimentation. The result is a stirring album that offers hissing industrial ambience alongside almost pastoral soundscapes. Weaving between minimal electronic, dark ambient and heavy synth wave, it’s an album that manages to feel foreboding and brooding as often as it does unexpectedly light. The pair have managed to land on something that feels coherent yet also split – it’s the equivalent of moving back and forth in a club between main-room eruptions and chill-out meditations.