After the minimal and droney Energy of the Multiverse, Jeff Sampson offers us a quite different album containing pieces recorded between 2003 and 2015,  Mining Obscurity. This album lets us discover a wider part of his rich sound palette, while the whole remains very cohesive, demonstrating that the author has a clear and mature vision about his own work.

The foreground vocal melodies in Unaware & Kage are very touching and catchy despite (thanks to?) their sober atmosphere – far away from the stereotyped & overdone gimmicks of most pop singers. The other tracks (using mainly synthesizers and field recordings) are more abstract, while keeping a strong emotional background. Each one has its own nuance, from serenity to darker shades, and contributes to the unique atmosphere of “Mining Obscurity”, an album that manages to blend the smoothness of ambient music and the rough edges of sound experimentation with the depth of human feelings.

Click on the picture to visit the download page on archive.org

Full album download links

• Flac
• Mp3

Bandcamp mirror

Notes by the artist:

This is a small collection of songs created over a slightly larger period of time.
Working the Stream was started in 2006, sat forelorn for several years and completed in 2014.
The original recording for Unaware was in 2003. It was hiding in a hard drive folder waiting for rediscovery in 2014, which is when it was finished.
The Morning After: most of the work was in 2010. Tweaked and mastered 2015.
Kage also began life in 2010. Worked on it off and on. An earlier version was released on Necktar 2017 Volume 7.
Slopes of Ngranek was begun in 2009 and promptly put into hibernation. Large and small parts were added this year. There’s also a thing in it I had saved from 1984.

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Jeff Sampson: voices; synthesizers; field recordings; found sounds; sundry hits, slips and blips

Jeph Jerman (on Slopes of Ngranek): clarinet; additional sundry noises