Jefre Cantu-Ledesma creates music to fall into, to submit yourself to, sounds that persuade you to embrace a total immersion of your senses. And he continues to stake his claim as one of our time’s preeminent ambient alchemists with “The Milky Sea”, a 20-minute wash of atmospheric guitar and oceanic drones, plinking piano, elliptical cello, and just the faintest suggestion of percussion rolling around somewhere in the background. The music is so textural that you feel the contours of its rhythms as they pass through you, curious angles offering stranger architecture. The track stretches out in all directions, with no visible end in sight, reveling in its gauzy tones and tangible sensory reactions. But despite its massive circumference, the song slowly builds up a head of steam, releasing it toward the end in a measured burst of creative energy. What delights await us as we sail further into the vast swells of his latest album, Gift Songs? I honestly don’t know, but I sure as hell want to find out.
Listen below.
Gift Songs is due out March 21 via Mexican Summer. You can pre-order it here. Follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
