BALAM ACAB, 'Wander / Wonder'

On the cover of Wander / Wonder, a faint blue light illuminates what appears to be a small crevice in a large cave. The source of that light lies hidden somewhere behind the blackness that envelops the rest of the frame. It's a simple, abstract gradient, minimal in its aesthetic and striking in its details, and it leaves viewers room to draw their own pictures in the darkened margins. It's a perfect fit for the music it encases. (...)

In a statement to the press, Koone was recently quoted saying that Wander / Wonder "is an open-ended album, and I think individuals should make their own meaning of it so that it is something actually real to them." That's likely why so much of this music is shrouded in darkness. The layering of audio effects keeps the album's sounds hidden behind a veil, as if they're being played in a dream by an ever-shifting, permanently anonymous source. Koone's vocals, for example, are processed in such a way that they seem to have been recorded from far away in huge underground spaces, always detached and elusive. They rarely ring out clearly enough to be fully comprehensible, so listeners can draw their own meanings from the voice around the bend.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/28/139952027/first-listen-balam-acab-wander-wonder

It's hard to believe this clean-cut boy-child is responsible for music of such unearthly, eerie power and ghostly grace
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/02/new-band-balam-acab?INTCMP=SRCH

http://blogs.elpais.com/muro-de-sonido/  (November 2, 2011)