BALAM ACAB

Highly anticipated full-length from Balam Acab following the magnificent See Birds EP. For Alec Koone, the 20 year old, Pennsylvania resident, who was 19 and based in New York at the time of his first release, ‘WANDER / WONDER’ is a coming of age album that see’s him expand upon the unique sound that attracted him so much attention to begin with.In Koone’s own words: “It’s an open ended album, and I think individuals should make their own meaning of it so that it is something actually real to them. It's not classical music, but in the tradition of a classical work like a Bach Cello Suite, I see it as more of a whole musical piece with themes/motifs/ideas reoccurring throughout, connecting the tracks together as opposed to simply being a collection of songs that sit next to each other in isolation. It’s also an album that should be listened to loudly.” ‘WANDER / WONDER’ is a mysterious and genuinely haunting record that seems to exist in a world all of it’s own making, balanced between the ecstatic ‘wonder’ referenced in the title and something altogether more indefinable and uncertain of itself, like shards of light flickering through a blanket of fog, and even though ‘WANDER / WONDER’ is undeniably an electronic album, it feels strangely organic, rooted in nature, synthetic textures and distorted voices harmonizing with an ever present oceanic shimmer. ‘WANDER / WONDER’ was written and produced by Alec Koone in New York and Pennsylvania. Mixed by Alec Koone and Sam Haar (member of Blondes) in New York City.- "Oh, Why" is the first track to be released from his upcoming full-length debut, WANDER / WONDER, and it hints that the Balam Acab sound has got sucked even further into introspection. There's a resemblance to James Blake’s approach, as if he's attempting to set his feelings of loneliness and alienation into song. But the tools used are a little different from Blake's; the Balam Acab sound is much more abstract, with cloudy vocals pitch-shifted into dueling high and low ranges, while the subaquatic tone is pegged down to a sludge-like crawl by a cluster of leaden beats. Despite its nebulous intonations, it feels like a great deal of time and care has been put into shaping the subtle beauty of "Oh, Why.“ - PITCHFORK