As Titan opens there’s a spacey shimmer in the sweet theme emerging. A clear, bright journey has been launched by Kiev-based Voin Oruwu (Dmitriy Avksentiev). Between the tones and the gorgeous Mars-like surface textures of the brick-colored coverart (paintings courtesy Dmytro Fedorenko) this is a melodic leap into the space race. The lead track moves fluidly into Rising and then Blur Planet which continues this contension. Etudes From A Starship is an intriguing soundtrack without the need for a celluloid medium to back it up. Pure ambient atmosphere impregnated with a sonic chill mood that hovers as it probes.
On these ten short tracks, all under five minutes, there are uses of reverse tapeloops interjected that act like dizzying time travel (Source) as well as subliminal (interspacial mall) melodies that dance amid a soft palette of coloration (Acid Clavi 2110). In many ways this harkens back to the good ole days, a time from which came collections like Pete Namlook’s expansive Fax +49-69/450464 Records catalogue (1992-2012) or the immersive and mysterious EM:T series (1994-2006). These along with counterparts like Rather Interesting, Instinct and a few distant cousins really put a new form of ambient music back on Earth for a while and here Kvitnu follows in their footsteps with this generous release of pure futurism.
From end to end the intrigue builds and recedes on amazing trance-like tracks like Limulus that take a vital turn into bolder slow beats as if entering an ancient form of some sort. It’s one of those intermediate swaths of invention that Voin Oruwu injects to systematically wake the senses. The entire disc is so consistently thoughtful in concept and temperment, and his ancient melodies, mixed with the synthetic on Escape Mission really bolster something of a quite contemporary fusion. In the final Ceremony the Fairlight-like bends meet fluted effects and tribal drums that slowly shift in position. A glowing affair that dances gently and fades away leaving you wanting more.
https://toneshift.net/2019/03/14/etudes-from-a-starship-by-voin-oruwu/