'Air Signs' is the latest album by ambient music artist Brad Deschamps of Toronto, Canada, who has a slew of previous releases going back to 2015 under the name of Anthéne. The pieces on 'Air Signs' are based on fairly minimal guitar loops with overlapping swells and melodies. Inspired by the hawk on the cover, which landed right outside the window at his workplace in a hectic area of downtown Toronto, the pieces are light and airy, reflecting the stillness of our natural surroundings in the midst of human made chaos. This is classics ambient at its best; calm, peaceful, minimal. This is absolutely what ambient music creator Brian Eno envisioned when he first set out to do ambient music; minimal, unobtrusive, background "wallpaper music." There are only six tracks on the album, and all of them under 8 minutes each, the longest being the title track at 7:30. There is a hint of wistfulness in some of the compositions such as "thorns," but there is no over-arching melancholy or sadness.
For those interested in the technical aspects, the guitar loops on the album are mostly processed with a Chase Bliss Lossy pedal as well as a Vongon Paragraphs filter both creating unusual tones, overtones and artifacts. There is also heavy use of a Maneco 16 second delay for lo-fi forward and reversed loops. The album was mastered by Peter Andersson, who you might know from Raison D'être, Stratvm Terror, Necrophorus, Atomine Elektrine, and other music projects. One aspect I particularly like on this album is the use (but not overuse) of backwards guitar, most noticeably on the fifth track, "all a blur." Whether you're looking for music for meditation, or a soundtrack to watch the world go by, "Air Signs" definitely fits the bill.