Gnac
Friend Sleeping

I absolutely can't remember how this CD ended up on my list of things to listen to. Maybe one of the many 'best post rock albums' lists or in one of the many forgotten old forums that from time to time I bother to browse through.
I know that this bare album cover has been circling around me for quite some time, and I had no idea what to expect.
Practically, listening to this CD is somewhat like entering a small downtempo world, a hypnotic musical accompaniment to something that could be an anime or a video game.

Now, I like the idea of the video game. They seem like those tracks that play in the background of some game's levels.
Clearly, we are not dealing with the MIDI of the '90s, but something played and more inclined to create an atmosphere, which in this case is mostly restless and distressing (thanks to the minor and dissonant harmonies).
It's not hard to imagine a gloomy atmosphere, for example, in the strings of the opening track Friend Sleeping. Or a 5/4 journey among the clouds in the lengthy Stepping Aside, or again Ice Cream Van where harmony and melody seem to travel on separate tracks, creating a disorienting and mysterious effect.

In short, an album made of small, non-trivial instrumental frescoes, which - just for the melodies - might remind one of small classical music exercises, transplanted into a twilight, creepy, and in its own way minimal context.
A bit like if Rachels of A French Galleon left half of the band at home and accompanied themselves with only an electronic drum occasionally. That's how tracks like Hennebert Sleeve take shape.
In this case, we should speak in the singular, since Mark Tranmer is the only name behind the Gnac project, of which this album marked the debut in 1999.

And to close the album, the short and sweet Fin, melancholic and moving, almost foreign to the rest of the album, as if to reconcile and soothe all the restlessness accumulated during the listening.

Try it to believe it.