Artist: Ilyas Ahmed
Album: Closer to Stranger
Genre: Psychedelic Folk
Release Date: 2018
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 44,1 kHz
Duration: 45:08
Total Tracks: 11
Total Size: 472 MB

Tracklist:

01. Ilyas Ahmed – Meditation on the Split Self (04:21)
02. Ilyas Ahmed – False Front (02:55)
03. Ilyas Ahmed – Passing Lines (05:16)
04. Ilyas Ahmed – Zero for Below (04:04)
05. Ilyas Ahmed – Fever Pitch (05:09)
06. Ilyas Ahmed – Cancel to Reveal (04:20)
07. Ilyas Ahmed – Untitled #1 (02:37)
08. Ilyas Ahmed – Sleepwalker (05:45)
09. Ilyas Ahmed – Untitled #2 (01:50)
10. Ilyas Ahmed – Furtherness (04:42)
11. Ilyas Ahmed – Two Steps Away (04:04)

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Closer To Stranger is the new solo album by Pakistani-born dream-folk musician Ilyas Ahmed. Drawing on a wide range of influences, his songs incorporate classic singer-songwriter gestures alongside more experimental leanings. Recorded to tape in the studio by Justin Higgins in the fall of 2016 and finished in the spring of 2017, Ahmed’s instrumental palette includes: acoustic and electric 6 and 12-string guitars, Fender Rhodes, multiple keyboards, tanpura, and percussion. Closer To Stranger stands as a meditation on uneasy identity politics during times of unreason, seeking peace amidst chaos.

Jonathan Sielaff (of Thrill Jockey ambient duo Golden Retriever) cameos with guest saxophone on “Zero For Below” but otherwise the album is a solo affair, alternately feverish, tense, hazed, hypnotic, and narcotic. A slowly unfolding inward journey of late night lullabies and contemplative electric drift.