Kiasmos – Kiasmos

Kiasmos is all about the slow build. The venture has been more or less resigned to the backburner for the last several years, as collaborators Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen busied themselves with more principal projects (piano-led solo work and synth-pop act Bloodgroup respectively). But, finally, the two musicians have carved out enough time in their schedules to indulge their mutual passion for low-key electronica – and the resulting album unfolds in a suitably unrushed fashion.

Lit opens Kiasmos with atmospheric synths, metronomic percussion and a two-note piano refrain; the elements added and subtracted steadily to subtle but compelling effect. It’s characteristic of the album’s blend of minimal techno and neo-classical, a combination that interlaces digital components (programmed beats, loops) with acoustic (piano, finger clicks); the pristine with the comfortingly imperfect. With echoes of the gentle, pastoral quality of Four Tet’s early albums, Kiasmos is understated almost to a fault but nevertheless immersive.