Yagya - Faded Photographs [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: 3SPA-CD
Barcode: 8720246793017
Release Date: 20 Mar 2023
Genre: Electronix / House / Techno / Pop

01 THE DOWNPOUR
02 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
03 THE SERPENT
04 NO MATTER WHAT
05 MELTING IN THE MORNING SUN
06 THE WAY YOU SAY MY NAME
07 LEFT UNSAID
08 MY REFLECTION
09 A WICKED JOKE
10 JUST FOR A MOMENT
11 MY OWN WORTH

It seems like an age since Icelandic producer Adalsteinn Gudmundsson's last album as Yagya, 2020's ''Old Dreams and Memories.'' The first album to be released on his own label Small Plastic Animals it was followed by the four-track ''Always Maybe Tomorrow'' EP in 2021. ''Faded Photographs'' is his ninth studio album, the most involved and time-consuming project to date and collaborative on a scale not seen since 2012's ''The Inescapable Decay of My Heart.'' It also marks an exceptionally confident return to the art of song-writing, but where that earlier album was a more upbeat dub techno-pop affair, ''Faded Photographs'' is nostalgic, wistful, reflective and steeped in poetic romanticism. Gudmundsson's love of the art of the album is also more pronounced here than ever before, almost every single track tied together by the particularly unifying use of triplet rhythms in combination with 4/4 beats, beguiling hushed vocals and enveloping, molten dub bass tones. Combined with a typical dedication to sound design and production, ''Faded Photographs'' is rendered an utterly seamless experience, demanding to be heard as a whole. Written and produced when we had become more distant and disconnected from one another than ever before, ''Faded Photographs'' brings together and showcases an ensemble of artists in a spirit of collaboration that flies in the face of adversity, a true product of its time.