Prologue

Brian Eno’s assertion that ambient music can be “actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener,” a music that, “exists of the cusp melody and texture,” could easily be applied to the work of Matthew Pastkewicz, only his ambient world is a vast stream of paranoia and unease.

Pastkewicz’s music feasts upon the tension of ambiguity and it’s terrifying manifestations, monolithic shelves of noise swept with nostalgia, chilling narratives with transient colour.

Actively listened to with attention, too hostile to ignore. A haunted dancehall punctuated with schizophrenic flashbacks.

By Timothy Hazel