maps, by ekin fil

maps

by ekin fil

supported by

rikm "Maps" is a hauntingly beautiful release that takes the listener on a guided tour of dark places and lonely lands. There is a stark and isolated feeling to this work, brittle and delicate melodies that speak to a sadness and deep melancholy, but there is also a tragic beauty and wonder for those who look.

Highly recommended...

jgladden ghost inside was captivating but this is sheer ambient bliss, deep throated piano, field recordings, the wisps of shimmering voice, so easy to get lost in the glistening fog. elements of grouper and motion sickness of time travel but entirely its own. savagely beautiful.

more...

	/

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
an edition somewhere south of 280 copies.

Includes unlimited streaming of maps via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$19 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$8 USD or more

1.	maps 03:22	buy track
2.	bloody sunday 03:43	buy track
3.	his own 02:55	buy track
4.	away 03:50	buy track
5.	on the move 02:35	buy track
6.	not me 02:58	buy track
7.	nocturnal arc 04:46	buy track
8.	insomnia 03:27	buy track
9.	at dawn 08:40

about

ekin fil continues her quietly complex dream-pop oeuvre on maps. for many years now, this istanbul musician has been writing mysterious and haunting songs, rich in heavy-reverb effects and an introspective torpor. with each successive album, her songwriting has blossomed through broader instrumentation and more intricate melodic phrasing, though the somber atmospherics and ghostly manifestations remain a judicious constant. minor-key, tear-stained notes of piano, organ, and guitar veer along elliptical orbits as a soft-whisper lilt of ekin’s voice narrates more by emotive decree than by literary couplet.

maps addresses the distance and dislocation of the self from the bustling center of istanbul, where ekin fil (neé ekin üzeltüzenci) had once called her home. having spent her first winter on a relatively quiet island in the sea of marmara (while still in the greater metropolitan umbrella of istanbul), maps is “lonely, different, kind of isolated,” according to ekin, who also noted that the island had “too much silence around. there is no other choice but to concentrate, i guess.” her poetics of silence on her previous recordings had been noted as an antidote or a dream capsule of sound in response to istanbul’s cauldron of politics, culture, and philosophy that has been boiling almost since the beginning of civilization. maps bends that maritime silence into wind-swept smudges that complement her already spacious compositions.

the saddest songs of the durutti column excised of rhythm and those few plunges into sorrow by harold budd make for apt comparisons to maps, in addition to the drone-on classics of grouper, slowdive, and sarah davachi.

credits

released August 17, 2018

mastered by james plotkin
photography & design by helen scarsdale

license

about

helen scarsdale California

post-industrial research, surrealist collage, refined minimalism, caustic electro-acoustics, sublimated dream-pop, obfuscated field recordings, recombinant noise, existential vacancy, and then some.

contact / help

Contact helen scarsdale

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like maps, you may also like:

After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house
by Nivhek

supported by 41 fans who also own “maps”

Deep, interesting, strong and emotional. Just a great work. Liz Harris will always have something strong, special and surprising in the best artistic way. risovic
go to album
Everywhere at the end of time
by The Caretaker

supported by 34 fans who also own “maps”

this is one of the best albums i’ve listened to in its entirety not a single dull moment in this album 10/10 for sure a top 3 album of all time psloan
go to album
Grid Of Points
by Grouper

supported by 26 fans who also own “maps”

Grid of Points is more brighter compared to its previous sister album Ruins, yet the album still feels very dark, possibly caused by Liz’s inhuman ability to make the calming sound disturbingly beautiful. Every moment on here, yes that’s including that ending to Breathing, makes me feel so emotional in different ways, but Driving specifically has such a punch to it like no other. alice
go to album
NOISE
by NOISE.

On this uncompromising LP, the UK outfit NOISE use haunting drone, hissing static and stark electronics to explore repressed trauma. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 1, 2022
go to album
Holographic Dreamtime
by Khôra

Less a solo act than a one-man megalith, Khôra builds impressive experimental soundscapes from modular synths, flutes, harps, and more. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 19, 2020
go to album
Transmissions
by Samuel Goff

The first release on Cacophonous Revival, from experimentalist Samuel Goff, uses avant-garde approaches to get at personal narratives. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2020
go to album
KOMA
by Ekin Fil

supported by 25 fans who also own “maps”
go to album