Following up on their excellent release on Takuroku, Portals, Marja Ahti and Judith Hamann find new ways to suspend time while connecting distances through an ever-growing sonic portrait. A coincidence is perfect takes intimate, often disparate vignettes and weaves them together in surprising ways to create a holistic emotional trek. Ahti and Hamann use sound as a tethering conduit, a tendril through the harsh veil of yesterday, reaching toward a place where our connections glow.
Cello motifs are arranged like shifting sand patterns on cracked sheets of glass, scratching and whispering elegantly against austere vapor. Movements reach out into microscopic tears between shards, each an island of withering thoughts, binding each with unseen brilliance and strength. This music may seem fragile from a distance, as though it’s a gossamer web of intricate stories, but Ahti and Hamann are wound taut, together a forward-looking unmovable force.
Many moments throughout these side-long pieces catch our focus, even if most are fleeting. It’s as though life is unfolding at an unfathomable pace in all directions, and we’re attaching bits of ourselves to any protruding edge within reach. Hypnotic, ringing drones spin into solemn strings, evoking grief’s mesmerizing gravity before flickering into the distance. Ahti and Hamann find a way to intertwine isolated worlds into something entirely new. Voices tempt our attention away from the flowing sonorous flames encased in each piano remnant and electronic stretch, but every moment has its purpose in this extended journey.
A coincidence is perfect strips away any pretense in presenting this graceful collection. Ahti and Hamann’s wordless sketches are vulnerable and tender but stitched together as an intimate conversation. They become alive and captivating. Each decision of what to share becomes a new bloom within the aural dialogue. As listeners, we get to follow the charted path, but there’s no way to know where we’ll end up.
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