Four Tet's Haunting "Three" Album Speaks Volumes Without Words

If we have discovered something about 4 Tet by now, it is that a lot may be stated with so little phrases.

There’s nary a single spoken phrase in his new album, Three. However its music shimmers with encoded epiphanies, the illusory sort that may solely come from 4 Tet’s singular creativeness.

Every instrumental monitor is a mosaic that speaks in tongues of heat resonance and glitchy futurism. A grasp of splicing conflicting feelings, 4 Tet produces forlorn ambient ballads at instances and carefree, walk-on-air home music at others.

Three entwines crackly IDM and folktronica into an embroidered ether that blooms with every transient phrase. Similar to most of 4 Tet’s albums, it is a secret grove with eerie liminal areas to get misplaced in.

Working example is “Gliding By Every thing,” an plain spotlight. Awash in a haze of phantasmic arpeggios, its effervescent manufacturing finally mutates right into a haunting coda. The identical goes for “Storm Crystals,” a stunning monitor that might flush your serotonin if not for its woozy synths.

Three is out now on 4 Tet’s personal Textual content Data imprint. Take heed to the total album beneath.