PHOTAY Schallplatten & CDs

Review: American DJ, producer and electronic musician Evan Shornstein, AKA Photay, is perhaps best known for his work on labels like the uber-exalted Ninja Tune, highly respected Astro Nautico, and super-good Mexican Summer. And at times (well, on 2022's On Hold), he's worked with telephone hold music samples. Forget all that, though, because here he teams up with the similarly visionary-minded Carlos NiNo for a masterclass in atmosphere and laidback, slick, immersive tones.

It's hard to really put your finger on what's happening with An Offering. In some ways, it's contemporary classical, or at least it makes you feel like you're listening to an orchestra warming up, possibly playing incidental parts to augment some narrative playing out on an audibly large stage. In other ways, this is highly experimental business that occupies a space in a kind of instrumentally-unique ambient world. Jazzy, strange, ethereal, and utterly mesmerising.