Ni!: Hikikomori

No, it's not a silly Monty Python tribute (not apart from the name, anyway) or a free-noise Neu! spinoff. This one-man outfit is far more sedate and subtle than either of those, for one—which turns out to be a very good thing. Leon Sukhodolskiy actually can make a heck of a lot of noise for just one fellow with analogue instruments, but it's beautifully calming noise. Ni! shows him using a range of reeds in tricky yet approachable ways.

With its disparate sounds assembled almost like parts in a band, Hikikomori comes out an easier and more mesmerizing listen than an experimental jazz album really should. Sax and trumpet lines weave drifting melodies that unspool organically. Bass clarinet drones add mysterious flavor, sometimes sinuously Eastern, sometimes simply otherworldly. Amidst them all, Sukhodolskiy sprinkles a range of quasi-percussive sounds (slap-tongued reeds, brief horn blats and more) to make light rhythmic beds amidst the swirls.

Playful spots such as "Ninja and Childrens" suggest the flavor of light ambient techno, even though all the beats are made by non-digital means. Sparser pieces like "Covid and Holy Woof" or "Donkey Racing" (amusingly apt, that one) simply create a wide sonic space to float through in no hurry at all. Effects are common but judicious, mainly a coat of reverb to build the horns' tones into immersive envelopes of echo. Otherwise the gear is used just to layer the parts and then get out of the way. Whatever technology is behind it, Ni!'s sound is a fundamentally natural one that still never seems quite of this Earth.