Daydream Lullaby

Eric Ryszkiewicz records as Daydream Lullaby, and he crafts ambient instrumentals with minimal tools — normally just a guitar, a synth and a means to create repeating loops. The loops provide sonic flooring for melodic meanderings of his dulcet guitar tones, and Ryszkiewicz rarely modulates or corrupts them. It's a stretch to call Daydream Lullaby's music "experimental," a tag normally given to vocal-free sonic explorations; the patterns are melodically conventional and the sounds are soothing, in keeping with the project's title. The three-track EP, Daydream Vacation, is meant to give an impression of Ryszkiewicz's abilities as a live performer (rather than as a studio project), and the results show some promise amid some layers of fluff.

It feels awfully lazy to mention Brian Eno's name in regard to another ambient musician, but the influence of Another Green World is unmistakable on the ten-minute track "The Inner Lives of Giants." As simple guitar patterns spin out and harmonically multiply ad infinitum, a low synthesizer note provides a buzzy counterpoint. The effect on the song, and the sound of the instrument itself, is so reminiscent of Eno tracks such as "The Big Ship" and "Everything Merges with the Night" that it's almost certainly a homage. You could pick worse artists to emulate than Eno, but the ambient maestro knew how to mix ethereal soundscapes with restraint and a respect for pop-song dynamics. At 22 minutes, Vacation's final cut, "Layercake (5357)," has so little movement or growth (save for a fairly predictable reverse-tape effect in the final minutes) that it's hard to justify its length. Ryszkiewicz is better when he works in smaller spaces. The opening track, "Daydream Vacation," is the EP's shortest track, but it feels the most like a statement of purpose. Sounds spring up, then disappear, then reappear in a mutated form until a story starts to emerge. It's never overwhelming — nothing on this EP is, nor is it designed to be — but it's a reminder that such space constraints require deft editing.

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