When Lisbon-based producer Marco Guerra began curating a Spotify playlist of largely- beatless experimental electronic music in December 2020, he never expected to take it a step further. In a progression as natural as the sounds he was collecting, he began assembling tracks from around the world away from the streaming giant and onto the more grassroots digital music provider Bandcamp. The outcome is Amanita Muscaria 1, released on Guerra's Maquiavel label, a psychedelic and absorbing experience beyond simply music, acting more like a vehicle for transcendental experience. The one-hundred-and-ten-minute compilation is a sprawling and mind-bending collection capable of transporting the listener to worlds as hypnotisingly relaxing as they are colourfully entertaining.
Not entirely new age and not wholly ambient, these tracks are united by a similar downtempo and experimental ethos. Yet, each comes from artists of varying sensibilities, approaches, and geographical locations, ensuring the compilation is neither one-note nor a mish-mash of disparate material. Expertly curated, the songs inform each other as they peak and trough across an abstract ecosystem of biotic and abiotic symbiosis.
The opening track, "Frogs In My Backyard", from Lisbon's Floresta Oblíqua is a spacey number which sees lightfooted and sustained phrases play over a bed of gnarly distortion, though the track remains meditative throughout, lulling the listener into a world where creepy sounds live in harmony with enchanting beauty. Texas-based Slow Draw deftly pits scrambled samples with low, evolving drones which fizzle out to a whistle and playfully erratic strikes of keys on "You Are My Legs". On "Esther" by Sweden's RAUSTE, the artist employs a mod wheel and arctic tones to mesmerising effect, creating a track free from the constraints of time and borders.
While percussion is absent from this compilation, it is not without rhythms. These rhythms come in various shapes and forms, from the arpeggiated taps and chimes of Cederick Knox's, "Valium Picnic", which also features unintelligible vocals panning across the stereo before synths bloom skyward, to Madrid's Concrete Fantasies contribution of the spellbinding sound art piece "8", which is full of ominously pitched spoken word and environmental curiosities wrapped in a dense mood. Arguably the most poetically titled track on the album comes via The Vet's Fetching with "The Clouds Bled Legs and Walked Away". This track is more space than mass but proves that the understated can often say more than the explicit. Listening to this track feels akin to standing in a large room, empty save for some crawling bugs and dancing light.
At over 22 minutes, Emilio Portal's "a compendium of hopes dreams & grooves" is the longest track on the album. The Ontarian artist slowly builds warbling synths under scattershot and minimal beats before the indefinite strikes fall away and electronic sounds are left to cover the stereo. This track sits next to the third longest track, "Garble" by Lisbon's Clothilde, a more ominous and unnerving listen; its alien sputters and sci-fi washes make for an ultimately atmospheric take on environmental ambient. By no means bloated, these tracks' lengths are warranted, especially as they are sequenced back to back and right in the middle of the compilation, acting as a centre of gravity around which the other tracks orbit.
One of the bigger names featured on the compilation is that of Californian artist Devin Sarno, who contributes "Exhale", a slowly expanding and vibrant cut from his upcoming album Misshapen Heart. "Dark Strndr" by Distant Fires Burning is a quieter-than-quiet and deeply meditative piece which reaches sepulchral depths through lowly drones and sparkling static textures. Bones: Dreaming's "Desert Sun" takes over thirteen minutes to rise and fall, yet it feels like a comprehensive portrait of its title's subject matter, with warmly spacious synths setting into freezing cold, electrical noises. Guerra's project CITIZEN:KANE is present with "Funeral Provider", a dirge of thoughtfully arranged and orchestral synths, bass, and strings. Like a funeral procession, this track pushes forward with its twisted synthesis and macabre organ strikes.
From the Portuguese city of Coimbra, Kinbotte executes a transportive collage of sporadic keys, larger-than-life synths, and profoundly relaxing arpeggiated tones culminating in "Terra", a track which washes over you and cleanses. "Anchored" from Nonagon Stare is perhaps the most chilled and classically beautiful track in the collection; field recordings of birds are fused with meditative ambiences which rise to ephemeral heights. Setúbal artist Tropic Noir produces a work of calm cool with "Espelho pt.2", which has some fascinating ambient beats fed through cosy hisses as wandering tones float around the stereo. Canadian ambient artist Tewksbury closes the compilation with "We Refuse to be Worn Out", a cathartic piece which gifts the listener with ambiguous and uplifting notes carefully assembled underneath a soaring comfort blanket of warm resonance.
Whether you're looking for an instant unwind from daily stresses or a soundtrack for your psychonautic explorations, Amanita Muscaria 1 will prove a phantasmagorical and continually rewarding addition to your audio library.
★★★★½