“For Tristes Tropiques (‘Sad Tropics’), Todd Tobias “sought to evoke far-fung places where indigenous cultures have either vanished or are in the process of being swallowed up by an ever-expanding global civilization”. The inspiration for this album (as well as its title) comes from the 1955 book by french anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss. Do not expect to hear tropical field recordings and ambient drones here: these are atmospheric, melancholic, instrumental sound-paintings with “a luxuriant yet downcast tone”. Todd Tobias is a multi-instrumentalist and producer known for his production work for Guided by Voices and collaborating with Robert Pollard. This is his fourth solo-recording.”

Ambient Blog