Dulcitone 1804

Album review

According to Nightports, they have a rule at the base of all they do:

Nightports is based on a simple but unbreakable rule of restriction: only sounds produced by the featured musician can be used. Nothing else. These sounds can be transformed, distorted, translated, processed and reprocessed, stretched, cut, ordered and reordered without limitation.

Lately their albums have featured different lead musicians, but new album Dulcitone 1804 sees Matthew Bourne, peaceful jazz pianist and lead on MINING's incredible 2024 record Chimet, take back the helm from predecessors Betamax (the drummer of The Comet Is Coming) and double bassist Tom Herbert. The record relies on spare playing of a dulcitone, an instrument where felt-covered hammers strike tuning forks to cause vibrations. Producers Adam Martin and Mark Slater then bend and extend the vibrations to create an ambient field that surrounds Bourne's playing.

A lullaby-like sensation often permeates, allowing Bourne's unsettling playing to shine accordingly. Dulcitone 1804, at its core, would like you to nap, but Bourne keeps you just on the edge of sleep and fitful consciousness. The hard strikes in "Fork" perfectly exemplify the mood—a tape-loop swirl of windy ambience meanders throughout the song while the hard dulcimer strikes break through the serenity from time to time. Many of the songs take this tone—wave breaks amid child-like peace—including the dreamy "Faele" and the majestic "Apricity." The nightmarish "Plads" and noisy "Linearity" provide breaks from the easily digestible norm, allowing the listener to break from the album's autonomic nature. "Fux" deviates as well, with a mysterious, vibraphone-like opening leading to a strange and enveloping build.

Too experimental to be new age or ambient but also not quite jazz, Dulcitone 1804 resides in the margins as a challenge to both the yoga-inspired ambient jams and longform, one-note drones that seemingly dominate the landscape. When working with Bourne, Martin and Slater know they can embellish the playing with varying results because the point is not to settle or accommodate. Nightports resist the temptation to coddle the listener and instead push their records away from the ethereal while still honoring its necessity. © Jeff Laughlin/Qobuz