The Digital Fix (UK)

Watery, cold landscapes and vast deserted plains are what Marcus Fischer’s new album Monocoastal evokes. Delicate found sounds and beautiful field recordings blend seamlessly with carefully constructed piano lines and the odd bit of guitar to make lulling expanses of ambient sound akin to that of fellow Portland, Oregon dweller Loscil and his most recent album Endless Falls. Purportedly making use of such instruments as a xylophone made of metal wrenches and other discarded scrap, this does have quite a cold detached feeling to it at points, most noticeably on ‘Mossbank’. However the swathes of glistening ambience keep you firmly in a dreamlike state where you’re unlikely to want to return from for a while.