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The internal realm should not be a foreign country. Quite suitably, Off the Map (69'50") by Nemesis & Juha-Matti Rautiainen provides the potential for exploration and discovery - as you will not be able to locate this troupe's languid, woozy elsewhere of the mind using any known chart or guidebook. Culled from vast sessions of improvised collaboration the resulting work manages to feel meticulous and intentional, yet it only provides its travelers with provisional routes. Whatever navigational methods this outfit has used to guide its inventions, they have proved to be very effective - as the resulting release, in just the first few moments of each piece, defines its regions and plots its direction with great accuracy. Soft searching synth sweeps, moving at the pace of an elusive dream, progress with an air of deliberation. With rich details floating at the center, and sedate washes signaling from the edges, our journey Off the Map hopes to induce a heightened state of mind and heart. As restless waves of harmony search for their resolution, into the most dim distant quarters this music sheds light. Out of the dark armature of the Berlin-School rolls a mechanized sequencer pattern - the memories, aspirations and longings of this era present a captivating detour. From gently unfurling bright tones and shapeless thought zones, down to the rumble and rasp of rushing electronic emanations, Off the Map emphasizes the extensive span of its territory. Ultimately, across these ten tracks of lawless dissolution and sedate equilibrium the concept of boundaries and borders becomes meaningless. Satisfyingly spacey and forward-thinking this album takes its place in the endless, purposeful reinvention this genre calls forth. Attracting us with its interactive nature - in that the artist provides an atmosphere which the listener shapes into meaning - we emigrate from the known world to a world of our own. The best Ambient Music provides a buffer, a consistent in-between time within which to reflect, reset and conceive. On a planet where we all yearn to find the future more informed listeners will use this sonic map, not to find places and things in the world, but to invent them.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 18 March 2021
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