LUMEN: forget everything

Québec duo LUMEN released their debut instrumental album "Lumen," an ambient and experimental set rooted in improvisation and heavy processing. No label and no date are announced on the record's Bandcamp page.

The setup is strict. Alto saxophone runs through an Ableton Push 3 standalone, pitch-shifted, looped and layered, its acoustic voice altered on the fly. Guitar runs through a wide pedalboard into long drones and ambient pads. The textures push both old instruments toward new limits while pressing the room itself against the speaker.

The process behind it adds teeth. They begin with a raw idea, a pedal setting, or a specific sound in the room, then post-production cleans the surface, editing spatial detail and separating acoustic residues from processing chains.

It is hard stuff to pin. Careful listeners on the ride, the patient ones especially. Then again, some experiments are best left exactly as performed. "Lumen" is streaming on Bandcamp now.