I confess it’s the first time that I hear about Kj, also known as Kj Rottweiler. By looking at the website, it seems that Kj is not only a musician, but a video maker as well. The album ‘Spells’ has been produced by the label Lost Tribe Sound. I confess I have never heard of this label either, but it looks certainly a very interesting one - the type of label that produces whatever the owners like, with well-curated packagings (as it’s the case with ‘Spells’).
However, I’m very disappointed at this album, despite very good reviews I read. How do ambient/dark ambient/drone albums usually work? What are their aims? I have been listening to this kind of music for a long time (almost 20 years), and the best albums are the ones that completely absorb you. Here are my two cents. You absorb someone else into your music by creating a sort of evolution of the song leading to a climax (and back again!): you start with a layer of sound, and then you fade in other layers, and while you have the new ones, you may subtract others. It can be dark ambient, new age, minimal, or whatever: I think the concept is exactly this. This is why ambient’s songs tends to be pretty long - it is exactly to create this suspence. But this is not necessarily the case: there are pretty good artists who can do with short songs.
What about ‘Spells’? This album is composed of brief songs (with some exceptions - more on this later). These songs are usually made of a couple of layers of sound - mostly pads, reverberated, creating the typical wide and open perception of ambient music. However, there is no construction, there is no evolution. Sometimes I had the impression of listening to only excerpts of the actual songs - when you want to introduce the listener to your album, and you made him/her listen to the songs when they have reached the climax. The only exceptions are the songs Dawyn and Spells. Interestingly, these are the longest songs.
What I want to say is that this album has amazing and well-curated sounds. However, it lacks structure and evolution - and I think structure and evolution are of paramount importance to ambient music. Without structure and evolution, it is very difficult to be absorbed by the music.