Tomáš Niesner

Tomáš Niesner has been making a name for himself in recent years by way of his solo ambient/drone excursions and the intricate melodicism of his collaborations with Jakub Šimanský. But it was “India Vibrations,” a digital self-release of lo-fi manipulated field recordings captured during a trip across North India, that really caught my ear: the cacophony of street festivals juxtaposed with the solemnity of houses of worship, all recorded on an “obsolete cellphone” and then looped and layered, abbreviated, elongated. It was Tomáš experimenting with an approach to music he hadn’t taken before, and the result is an audio postcard that is clearly evocative of a specific region but not timestamped with the year (2016) or even the decade in which it was recorded, leaving something to the listener’s imagination.

As “India Vibrations” served as the inspiration for World, out of this, “India Vibrations (Revisited)” rightfully arrives as the label’s inaugural catalog entry. Side A of the LP features the original 2020 recording, while Side B showcases seven brand new tracks made specially for this release, which Tomáš constructed from recordings made by his travel companions in the same style and notably adhering to the same compositional rule applied to “India Vibrations” of no additional instrumentation beyond the field recordings themselves. For the lucky few of you who navigated your way to the original digital release and were left wanting more, this is the record you’ve been waiting for. If you’re hearing it now for the first time, I hope you enjoy the journey through these 15 tracks that draw on the best qualities of raw field recordings, drone, and entrancing beats.