Hessien is the ambient duo of Tim Martin (aka Tim Diagram) of Maps and Diagrams, Atlantis, Karst, Bluhm, Black Elk, Ouvala) from the U.K. and Australian Charles Sage of y0t0, and The Rothko Chapel. This is their second release on the label after the highly acclaimed, and already sold out,'Calcifer' EP back in 2013. Martin is a twenty-year UK electronic and experimental veteran with over thirty album releases. Sage is a 10 year veteran of Australia’s indie pub circuit, and issued 4 releases as y0t0 and co-founded guitar noise collective The Rothko Chapel (Pete Dowd, Noveller, Steve Kilbey, Tape Loop Orchestra, elintseeker, Tree Of Man). So what of Hessien's 'The Alchemist'?

First, don't confuse these guys with Belgian dark metalcore band Hessian, as they have an album called 'The Alchemist's Blessing' and sound nothing like this Hessien. Also, I could not find a website for either of these guys (let alone any email addresses) so I am guessing they like to keep a very low profile, not ideal if you want to sell your music. I used Martin's Discog page as his website, but if anyone has a better idea, just email me and I will revise. This album is 10 tracks in a little over an hour. I have neither heard, nor heard of either before, but the music is familiar. This is a kind of guitar ambience where the atmosphere and effects are far more important (as well as more interesting) than any melodic inclinations. And yes, there are some of those. The actual music laid down is sparse and slow, but elongated into ambience. For some, it might sound like instrumental slowcore, with minimal musical phrasing. Most compositions employ just a few notes and/or repeated phrases. It's not the sleepy minimal riffs that make the music though; it's the sound treatments and the ambience.

To be honest, the first time I played 'The Alchemist' I really didn't like it at all. Nothing grabbed me or stood out, and I was left with a handful of memories of broken melodies and some fuzzy, hazy ambience. Three or four plays later and I began to realize what Hessien is really doing. It hit me like a blinding flash on the prophetically titled "There's More To It, You Know." The richness of the ambience of this piece just cannot be denied, and I love the sporadic backwards guitar zips and subtlety of the shoegazy melody. This is ambient music for people who really don't like ambient music; well not traditional ambient, anyway. There is a huge amount of sonic variety on this album and it is never clear or obvious where it's going to go or end up. Repetitious riffs set up a hypnotic feel causing you to fall into the music. Some tracks like "We Are Fond of Them" don't sound ambient at all, but more along the experimental noise (lite) genre. The last track has a great title - "Her Love of Skulls and Mushrooms" which might make you wonder just what kind of woman is this anyway? It does have a melodically minimal repeating riff throughout the entire piece which works really well. With only 200 handmade copies is the usual SIS fashion, this CDr will probably sell out soon too.