I was today years old when, thanks to the album that is the object of the review you're reading, I learnt the meaning of the term "4th world music". Yes, I apologise to all Brian Eno and Jon Hassel's fans for this unforgivable gap in my knowledge, I promise I will go listen to THAT album very soon. For those of you who also didn't know, the label refers to music made with primitive and tribal elements, manipulated and combined with electronic techniques.
This should give you an idea of what you will find in this "Land of Siesta 午睡島" by the Taiwanese project known as the FVL. The album is strongly inspired by the culture of the Favorlang people, and indigenous tribe that was present in Taiwan at least until the 1700s and whose language was only partially recorded by Dutch colonisers. The music effectively transports you back to those lost ancient times, with percussions and plucked strings that create hypnotic patterns which evoke curious images of mysterious rituals and ancient traditions. At the same time, there are also different modern components, starting with the basslines, which often seem influenced by the psychedelic space rock music from the 1970s (and it's not a surprise to discover that Hom Yu, one of the minds behind this project together with producer Chia-Yu, is also part of a psychedelic band called Mong Tong). In some of the songs, such as in "The Frog", the bass riffs become the main building block upon which the rest of the track is layered. There are also electronic elements, like synths and ambient pads, and overall a tasteful use of effects that bring all the different pieces together in a very harmonic mix.
The atmosphere is generally calm and introspective, there are no sudden accelerations or bursts of energy, the songs usually mantains consistent pace and focus on creating vivid imageries that slowly come to life by glueing smaller pieces together like a mosaic.
Definitely an intriguing project, with fascinating concepts and cultural background, blessed by a stellar execution. I believe that I couldn't have found a better album to be introduced to the 4th World genre!