Josh Varnedore - sun chapter (2012, Dynamophone)

Josh Varnedore wants his music to be loved and cherished. On three tracks he collaborates, with Hammock, another one with Hideki Umezawa (Pawn) and a last one with Amman Abbasi. Three names which tell a lot about "Sun Chapter".

It's ambient music but it's inviting, fresh and closely related to dreampop. The only problem is that it is not particularly original and not extremely memorable.


Most of the time it's just a pleasant record. The highlights are "Earth", "Vertebrae", "Sun Honey" and "186,000 Endings Per Second", the last two were already released last year on a EP. Strangely, all these tracks are collaboration.

"Sun Chapter" is beautiful but really too smooth, without asperities, trying too hard to emulate Hammock and Jonsi & Alex, losing a part of himself in the process.

But I still like it, at small doses, it doesn't compete with the beauty of his debut EP and with the one he co-wrote with Amman Abbasi.