Label: Independent Released: October 2020
'While You Were Sleeping...' presents a retrospective account of a project that has had a few months to marinate. This week sees us returning to a superb release from October 2020, Moonchild’s Amber Navran & Erin Bentlage's - Golden Light.
An exceptional yet largely overlooked collaborative project, Golden Light was released in October of 2020. The 5 track and just under 7 minute project utilises themes and variations, in which the tracks are variations of an original theme presented in track 1. The project was conceived when Amber heard an acapella version of Erin’s song ‘I Would’,
“A few months ago Erin wrote and recorded an incredible acapella arrangement of her original song "I Would" and posted it on Instagram. I was so mesmerised by it, I downloaded the video and listened all day. For the next week, I made beats sampling the arrangement in different ways, and those beats turned into this EP” - Amber Navran
I have attempted to stay focused on the project in order to review it, but it moves as effortlessly as time itself, and being so short I need to have it on a loop. Golden Light is only 6 minutes and 44 seconds long, but within that time I truly experienced what I would dare to say is some of the best jazz fusion/beat music/vocal jazz that I’ve heard for a while. It blends tipsy boom bap, electronica, adventurous and imaginative vocal sampling and mellifluous keys work with ease. The bass lines lie gently underneath the music, so beautifully mixed, rhythmic and dreamy that you barely notice them, you just feel them.
Erin’s original version of the track can be found as track 1 ‘Sunset’ on the EP As a teacher, scholar, performer, composer and arranger Erin undergoes intense experiments with the voice, leading to subconscious experiences of purity akin to Bjork’s Medula period.
To conclude, Golden Light manages to be at once present and un intrusive, a treat for the most discerning or casual listener. For me, this project epitomises what it is to be on Bedroom Frequencies.