“Glow in the Gloom” is the production of talented Japanese duo Gargle. They offer instrumental music combining mixed emotions as if which is trying to express a gleam of light in the darkness.
Gargle create cinematic music using huge range of dynamics based on the sounds of guitar, accordion and piano mixed with the layers of ambient sounds. Their music is commonly categorized as ambient, post-rock, experimental and modern classical music, however, as the lines between each genre have been becoming blurred nowadays, their music is differing from typical music of each category.
The sounds are sometimes cinematic and dynamic, and the sensitive and pathetic melodies are running through the sounds as if looking for literally a glow in the gloom. The sentiments of the songs are enhanced by the emotional sounds of strings coming in the middle of the songs.
The opening track “Presage” is a fine example; It’s not just post-rock or ambient. It’s not a classical music composition. It might be not correct to see it as a mixture of all three. The track has its own structure and its own beauty. While the album contains diverse aspects of sound, it has a consistent uniformity that will appeal to people’s emotions.
Gargle are Jun Minowa and Satoshi Ikeda. All you hear is performed by Gargle and Kei Sunayama on contrabass and Yoko Ikeda on violins. The label owner of Fluttery Records, Taner Torun tells that the number of people involved in the recording process is small but what Gargle achieves in this album is very remarkable. After the recording sessions, the album is mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama.
The album is highly recommended if you like Eluvium, Mono, Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros,World’s End Girlfriend, Our Sleepless Forest, Bosques de mi Mente, Yndi Halda, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mum, Rachel’s, My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, Brian Eno, Grouper.
Besides releasing an EP through a net label in 2009, Gargle took part in two collaboration albums of Draff Krimmy from Norway and Void’s Anatomy from Canada. Gargle has played shows around in Tokyo, and also went on a short tour in Europe in the autumn of 2011. They intend to keep playing shows to interact and share time and space with people everywhere. The guitarist Jun is also doing his solo project under the name of Yawning and has released an EP on Fluttery Records.