CV & JAB - Κλίμα (Klima) LP

This is a joint record released by multi-instrumentalist John Also Bennett, who is also involved in the operation of the long-established label RVNG in the United States and New York, and Belgian ambient artist Christina Vantzou on JAB's private label Editions Basic in October 2023.

Contains 10 tranquil neoclassical ambient to ambient jazz songs. DL code included. This is one of the most important neoclassical works in the second half of 2023.

below, journalistCommentary by Vittoria de Franchis.

"Κλίμα (Klima)" is Christina Vantzouと John Also BennettThis is the third album by the duo CV & JAB.The album is a step forward in the two artists' explorations of melodic interplay, acoustic processing, and field recordings, evoking the techniques of archaeologists searching for unheard soundscapes. Κλίμα (Klima) is constructed as a traveling mis-en-abomb, summoning global submarine circuits and the troposphere through sudden discoveries and progressive re-encounters.

In 2021, Κλίμα (Clima)'s music was fermented for two years after being invited to perform at Santuario Bom do Gesu do Monte, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Braga, Portugal. During this time, it was gradually perfected through live experimentation, periodic studio sessions, and travels through Tenerife's effervescent ambience.The album's core story was born on a volcanic island, recorded over a month in the extremely different microclimates that pepper the landscape.CV & JAB's flashes of movement from the desert to the rainforest are evoked over the course of 2 songs as an abstract audio guide of the external and internal worlds that permeate the work.

Percussion, refracted voices, chirps and growls, otherworldly synthesized tones, reverberating piano chords, yearning flutes - all appear, sometimes solo, sometimes in sync, and then disappear again.The playful interplay of this instrument with JAB's bass flute on "Dwelling" and "Pottery Fragments" and CV's flickering plasma voice on "Jetstream" creates a penetrating emotional resonance.

Suggesting a timeless wandering of ambient etudes and classical minimalism, the album unfolds like a mirage, lulling the listener into a meditative state with its mellifluous repetitions and offshore sci-fi inflections.Sounds and chords materialize and dematerialize, like the scenery we gaze at while half asleep on a long journey. CV and JAB have been wandering and surprising their sounds together for more than five years, giving us a sense of new horizons in their sound. "

 Includes DL code. 12" black vinyl edition of 500.

Vittoria de Franchis, July 2023 :

"Κλίμα (Klima) is the third album by CV & JAB, the duo of Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett. An assertive step forward in the two artists' investigations into melodic interplay, acoustic processing and field recordings, the full-length conjures the modus Operandi of archaeologists searching for unheard soundscapes. Structured as an itinerant mise-en-abyme, Κλίμα (Klima) summons worldwide submarine circuits and tropospheres populated by sudden findings and progressive re-encounters - hazy dreams amalgamate with mosaics of reality.

Catalyzed by a 2021 invitation to perform at the UNESCO world heritage site Santuário Bom do Jesus do Monte in Braga, Portugal, the music of Κλίμα (Klima) then fermented across a period of two years, during which live experiments, cyclical studio sessions, and travels across the Island of Tenerife's effervescent ambiences gradually contributed to its completion. It is on the volcanic island that the narrative core of the album materialized, prompted by a month of recordings across the radically different microclimates populating the landscape. CV & JAB's flashing transpositions from desert to rainforest are evoked over ten tracks operating as an abstract audio-guide of the outer and inner realms permeating the pieces.

Κλίμα (Klima) is conceived as a rhizomatic composition rather than a sequential excursus; again. The remote and enigmatic atmospheres that characterized previous CV & JAB albums acquire an intimate intensity in the solo piano excursions - “Klima” and “Lands of Permanent Mist” - and a penetrating emotional resonance with the instrument's flirtatious entanglements with JAB's bass flute on “Dwelling” and “Pottery Fragments” or with CV's flickering plasma voice in “Jetstream”.

Suggesting timeless wanderings in ambient études and classical minimalism, the album deploys as a mirage, inducing listeners into a contemplative state through mellifluous repetitions and offshore sci-fi inflections. The palpable depth of the recordings bestows each track with a distinctive density and presence: sounds and chords materialize and dematerialise as landscapes at which we gaze, half-asleep over a long journey. Ten sips of a familiar rapture which ooze a renewed sense of expansion in sound, informed by more than five years of CV & JAB's continuous sonic wanderings and wonderings together." 

Artist: CV & JAB

Label: Editions Basic