Yimes releases self-titled debut album

Ambient music has long had its pioneers and innovators, each adding their own piece to the genre’s unique puzzle while exploring the fringes of the style. This year, a new project has emerged to add its own distinct contribution to the ambient music story. Formed by musicians John Hanson in Detroit, Michigan and Andrew Taetz in the Bay Area, Yimes is a music production duo that fuses elements of progressive new age and ambient into their own original sound.

First making their entrance earlier this year, they unveiled their unique sound with the debut single titled “Good Yimes,” Followed up by singles two and three, they now bring us the full-scope of their sonic vision with their first full-length release, their debut eponymous album, Yimes. Their self-titled debut album is a superb showcase of collaboration and the blending of diverse musical communities.

Released earlier this year, the album features a rich tapestry of expression, energy and texture, drawing on the unique musical flavours of both San Francisco and Detroit. Yimes presents an inapiring sonic journey, where each track is a carefully crafted exploration of ambient beauty.

Featuring 10 tracks, the new record opens with their debut single “Good Yimes.” Delicate orchestral elements softly build up from gentle plucks, dancing flute flutter and elegant string touches, slowly slipping you into the World of Yimes. The tap of percussive elements ties everything into a loose groove to form an immersive instrumental fabric, capped by blissful, hushed vocal textures, crafting an fascinating sonic landscape to set up the full album.

“Sandhill Cranes” opens with airy vocal hums, joined by the smooth handpan tones before the laid back rattle of cymbals carry a mellow rhythm above quiet kicks. It’s a stunning sound of dreamy music that builds to a subtly emphatic crescendo of stuttered synth shots that hover above the splash of drums and enveloping arrangement.

Next up, “Into Where The Wind Blows” parts one and two craft a serene listening experience of floating tones that gradually swell above the sparse textures and lull of subdued percussion. Building with beautiful piano touches in the second part, this composition further slips you into a soporific state as the music wraps around you and conjures emotion and meaning left open to interpretation.

Other highlights on the record include pieces like “Yellow” which starts off with a picture painting scene of nature as the playful tweet of bird sounds gives way to a stretching web sonic bliss. Sustained PADs form a pillow above which intricate piano and bass tones rest resulting in an alluring atmosphere that offers just as much from each note as it does from the space between them.

The record closes with “Orange” with its soothing utterly inspiring sound of glistening sonic textures and graceful touches of bright instrumental flourishes to provide a tranquil finale to a truly enjoyable listening experience. With their their full-length record, Yimes delivers a dazzling exploration of ambient instrumental music, one that fans of the genre will cherish and listeners in general will find hard not to love.

Listen to Yimes below