Press reviews:

African Paper
Nach “Cursory Asperses” bringt das renommierte Ambient- und Klangkunst-Duo Celer eine weitere, diesmal um umfangreiches Bonusmaterial erweiterte Fassung eines ihrer klassischen Alben, “Engaged Touches” (2009), heraus. Die auf fünf Seiten verteilte 3LP-Edition ist die erste Vinylauflage des Albums, neben einer identischen 3CD-Edition ist auch eine Neuauflage der Original-CD erhältlich, die wie die beiden anderen Editionen von Stephan Mathieu neu gemastert wurde. Eindrucksvolle, ethnografisch anmutende Feldaufnahmen, die bisweilen kantige Seiten zeigen, halten sich hier die Waage mit einer wellenförmigen, melancholisch eingefärbten Dröhnung. Das Release erscheint beim hauseigenen Label Two Acorns.

Brainwashed
Will Long’s ambitious campaign to remaster and reissue key highlights from Celer’s overwhelmingly vast discography continues with this expanded reincarnation of 2009’s Engaged Touches (appropriately released on fellow ex-pat/ambient artist Ian Hawgood’s Home Normal label during its Japan-based era). The album is an especially noteworthy release within the Celer canon for a couple of reasons, but the big one is that it ranks alongside 2008’s Discourses of the Withered and 2019’s Xièxie as one of the project’s perennial fan favorites. While my own pantheon of essential Celer albums does not always align with that of said fanbase, this one’s prominent place makes sense, as it was definitely one of the most high-profile albums released during the white-hot height of Celer-mania. As such, it was probably one of the first Celer albums that many people heard. It is also inarguably one of the strongest albums recorded during the project’s early days as a husband-and-wife duo with Danielle Baquet-Long (Chubby Wolf) and most of the other contenders were not yet widely available before Bandcamp transformed the musical landscape. Given that, a reissue was both welcome and inevitable, but those who already love this album will likely be thrilled by the prospect of hearing it in its newly expanded and remastered form.

Much like how Wong Kar Wai was unable to resist tweaking the color grading of his films when the opportunity to release 4K restorations of his oeuvre presented itself, this version of Engaged Touches has been transformed and reshaped a bit by Long. Obviously, just about any artist can find room for improvement with the benefit of hindsight, but assessing whether this expansion is a significant improvement over the original is a bit tricky given the nature of the music (endlessly repeating slow-motion loops). In any case, this new version is roughly three times as long as the original (now either 3 CDs or 5 vinyl sides), but it is also two versions of the same album: the first two discs offer a new version with extended track lengths, while the third disc remains faithful to the original in every way except being remastered by Stephan Mathieu.

Naturally, it sounds great, but so did the previously available digital version, so I don’t know how long ago that remastering took place. Notably, there are also a couple of new pieces included (“In Bright The Days” and “If Disabuse Is So Hard, Then”), but their combined length is a mere four minutes. Consequently, the album’s transformation is essentially a durational one, albeit with some subtle enhancements to the flow (placement of field recordings, insertion of the two brief pieces between “Unless They Were Beautiful” and “What Our Mouths Make Them,” etc.).

That said, a significant part of Celer’s appeal has always been durational in nature, so the effect of the expansion is definitely felt and significantly transforms the listening experience. Listening deeply to one of Celer’s major works is like being completely immersed in someone else’s dream, so the tone of the album is arguably more important than any other aspect, though there are certainly exceptions to that statement. In general, however, how much I enjoy a Celer album comes down to which particular strain of billowing, looping, soft-focus melancholy resonates with me the most. In fact, an album like this one almost shares more common ground with a perfume than it does with music, as its pleasures are akin to an intoxicating spell.

In keeping with that theme, characterizing the spell of Engaged Touches feels a lot like trying to describe wine or a fragrance with terms like “earth,” “smoke,” and “leather”: it is more of an evocative art than an exacting science. For me, this album feels like “faded grandeur” mingled with “watching rain-soaked landscapes roll by from the window of a clattering train while I drift off to sleep.” That impression is subjective as hell, of course, but the “train” bit is not entirely a projection, as recurring interludes of train and train station sounds are a consistent thread running throughout the entire album.

To my ears, “Openings Of Love (Fireworks)” is the album’s sublime zenith, as beautiful slow-moving swells languorously roll across a quivering bed of drones for nearly 20 minutes while leaving a subtly accumulating haze of overtones, feedback, and shifting harmonies in their wake. The expanded version is slightly longer than the original version, but it is the sort of piece that could have easily been expanded to an entire album, as it is an absolute masterpiece of patience, control, and glacial transformation. Another variation of that feat is “Hanging Herself On The Lonely Fifth Column,” as a lushly romantic two-chord loop steadily accumulates an intensifying trail of gently oscillating decay. Elsewhere, “Unless They Were Beautiful” endlessly loops a string motif that evokes the delirious cinematic romanticism of a poignant moment suspended forever in time. One of the album’s shortest pieces is an unexpected highlight as well, as “Separations And Reactions” unfolds as a two-minute fantasia of shimmering, watery dream-chords over an elusive and enigmatic rumble of field recordings.

Given that Engaged Touches features at least four top-tier pieces from Celer’s duo era, it is basically required listening for any self-respecting fan of the project, but whether that necessitates diving into the expanded version is entirely dependent on the degree of said fandom. For me, the single-album version of Engaged Touches is immersive enough without any further expansion, but the inclusion of Danielle’s photography and her related poem make the physical release feel personal and almost sacred in a way that a digital album cannot hope to match. This is a beautiful object in its own small, quiet, and minimal way, which nicely mirrors how I feel about the music.

Chain DLK
In the sprawling expanse of ambient music, Celer’s “Engaged Touches” stands out like a solitary train traversing the misty landscapes of memory and emotion. This album, originally released in 2009 and recently remastered and expanded, is a sonic journey crafted by the duo of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long (Chubby Wolf). It epitomizes the deeply personal and evocative nature of their collaborative work.

“Engaged Touches” is a masterclass in ambient composition, where every sound feels meticulously placed to evoke a sense of place and time. The album opens with a track that seamlessly blends train sounds with gentle, ambient string loops, creating an aural painting of movement and stillness. This track, nearly 20 minutes long, serves as a prelude to the even more ambitious second track—a 40-minute tone poem that begins with a dense cluster of piano notes, gradually unfolding into a lush, melancholic landscape.

The emotional weight of “Engaged Touches” is palpable. It captures the essence of longing and separation, themes that resonate deeply given the couple’s history of creating music during their extensive travels. The inclusion of train and station sounds is not merely a motif but a narrative device that ties the album’s sonic journey to their real-life experiences, particularly a significant train trip across Canada. This journey imbues the music with a grandiose sense of place, reflecting the vast, multifaceted landscapes they traversed.

Technically, the album is a marvel of ambient production. The remastering by Stephan Mathieu brings a new clarity to the sound, enhancing the delicate interplay of loops, strings, and field recordings. The expanded edition, which now spans three CDs or five vinyl sides, offers both extended versions of the original tracks and entirely new pieces, though the transformation is subtle. These additions enhance the album’s durational quality, inviting listeners to lose themselves in its extended, looping soundscapes.

Listening to “Engaged Touches” is akin to immersing oneself in a slowly unfolding dream. Each track is a carefully constructed layer of sound, where the beauty lies in its patience and control. For instance, the almost 18-minutes lasting “Openings Of Love (Fireworks)” is a sublime zenith of slow-moving swells and quivering drones that leave a lingering haze of overtones and shifting harmonies. It’s a piece that exemplifies the album’s mastery of glacial transformation, where time seems to stretch infinitely.

In essence, “Engaged Touches” is not just an album but a sensory experience—a perfume of sound that evokes memories and emotions through its delicate, repetitive structures. It is an essential listen for any fan of ambient music, especially those who appreciate the introspective and evocative qualities that Celer so effortlessly embodies. Whether you are a long-time admirer or a newcomer, this expanded and remastered edition offers a profound journey through sound and sentiment, capturing the fleeting beauty of moments suspended in time.