Just Close Your Eyes: A Brief Review Of The New Album From Immersion (Colin Newman Of Wire & Malka Spigel Of Minimal Compact)

Immersion is a project from Colin Newman (Wire) and his "partner in life and sound" (as the press goes) Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact). The new record is called Nanocluster Vol. 2 and it brings together these two plus assorted guests in the service of music that is alternately soothing and hypnotic. Call this electronica or New Wave, but it's compelling stuff even as it modestly encourages an adventurous set of explorations.

"Just Close Your Eyes" with its whispered commands, and the Philip Glass-y "Rotations" are immediately invigorating. Paired with Thor Harris (Swans), this stretch of Nanocluster Vol. 2 finds moments of serenity punctuated by expressions of insistent yearnings. On the keyboards or samples, these figures repeat and overlap with each other, or resolve themselves as tension melts away like butter. Contemplative in a way, I guess, the music in this portion of the journey allows space for a listener to dream, or worry.

The second half of Nanocluster Vol. 2 is even better, with contributions from Jack Wolter of Penelope Isles as Cubzoa fueling the imagination. "I'm Barely Here" is absolutely beautiful. Riding in on waves of warm keyboards and vocals (from Wolter, processed, or from Malka?), the piece is borderline lush, and transfixing in its grace. As seagull sounds and a harder hook enter near the end, a listener feels like one's being pulled out to the center of the ocean for a long voyage. The spry "In the Universe" is another good one here with simple guitar figures and sampled beats adding pep to the simple pleasures of the number.

An older fan might hope that at least one track would have all four members together, but even so Nanocluster Vol. 2 is a record which pleases considerably. Fans of Minimal Compact and Eighties Wire will find lots here to groove with, even as followers of the proto-shoegaze of Penelope Isles should find Jack Wolter's portions of this effort to be very satisfying. For fans of Swans, and the varied skills of Thor Harris, there's new, more tempered thrills to be had in his stretch of this one. All of it works, and I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this record was, and how much space was here for me as a listener to find nuance and peace.

Nanocluster Vol. 2 by Immersion is available here.