Keith Kenniff
's ambient piano compositions under the
Goldmund
moniker are a very specific type of pristine minimalism. Often arriving in cloaks of reverb or atmospheric room sounds,
songs usually serve as vessels of nostalgia and beautiful melancholy. The notes hang almost formlessly, allowing their structures and gentle melodies to melt into a vastness. For the most part,
Kenniff
has kept
focused on the piano, but he's moved from the
Erik Satie
-esque spareness of early recordings like 2008's
The Malady of Elegance
to more full-bodied arrangements, incorporating electronics and decaying tape-recorded sounds on 2020's
The Time It Takes
.
Layers of Afternoon
is another subtle step forward for the project, this time finding
's piano unfurling alongside equally thoughtful violin from
Scott Moore
. The dialogue between the two takes the music out of its usual watery state to more solid ground. Tracks like "The One Who Stands Still" are still restrained and spacious, with
Moore
's violin moving carefully between
's drawn-out chords. Eventually, the two instruments merge into a cloud of combined sounds, no longer fully discernible from one another by the song's end. "The Broad Belt of the World" is similar, with a few floating piano notes creating a slow-moving space for
's violin tracks to bloom into a complex melodic progression, ultimately dissolving into wobbly cassette-tape artifacts. At times, the two players lock into unexpected unison parts. This shows up as both simple, longing figures on more subdued tracks like "We Begin Anew," and also precise harmonized string and piano arrangements in the lush grandeur of "Long Memories." As with every
offering,
is less concerned with technical expertise than it is with continuing to develop the emotional language
has been chasing since this project's inception. The tonality of these instrumental songs can be yearning, remorseful, contemplative, or softly joyous, capturing the feeling of sitting in a silent room as the day passes outside, remembering both the triumphs and defeats of days past. At this point,
is a master of capturing this particular mood. The newfound element of violin on
adds depth and character to the
sound without taking it too far from its mission statement of exploring its chosen moods. Again,
finds the sound of unspoken moments, guiding nostalgia for the past and hopefulness for the future to a quiet place in the present where they can get a good look at one another. ~ Fred Thomas