LA based Not Not Fun have been flirting with the ambient wave for a while but their latest release Wild Palms recorded in the suburbs of Moscow is an utter celebration of simplicity and purity, presented as crowning jewels of the ambient spectrum. Recorded in its entirety on a TASCAM Portastudio, the first and most widely used four-track recorder, it makes absolute sense for Iguana Moonlight’s debut to end up on a beautiful violet tape.
Split into six parts, the album steadily builds on electronic mantras accompanied by crashing waves and tropical surface noise to build a sonic picture of Icelandic solitude. Although this might come in full contrast to the suburbs of the Russian capital, the most populous city in the country, which lacks both any-tropical atmosphere and feeling of solitude, Wild Palms offers the dreamy aspiration to a whole different world.
The album is loosely inspired by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa’s novel La Iguana which explores a 19th century castaway’s experience of solitude and insanity on a remote island. The story serves perfectly as a musical journal to the protagonist, through its repetitive simplicity, but also through the subtle changes in rhythm and tone.
Finally, Ilya Ryazantcev, the bedroom producer behind Iguana Moonlight, manages to conduct a tranquil meditation through its minimal six piece suite which could go on an infinite loop without causing its listeners any apathy toward its musical structure.
Tracklist:
A1. IA2. II
A3. III
B1. IV
B2. V
B3. VI