Los Angeles-based musician and composer Sean McCann strikes me as one of the more sincere and thoughtful artists working in the contemporary realm of ambient musics. His recent slowing of output (only in context to the astounding amount of music he put out in years past) informs my opinion – I was thrilled to see what the creator of modern classics like The Capital would choose to pull out of the aether next, especially with all that extra time behind him. Consider this thrill fulfilled – Root Strata recently posted up a preview of Ten Impressions for Piano & Strings and I couldn’t be happier.

“Sense of Life” opens with the kind of wide open cinematic string-scapes that McCann manages to do better than almost anybody else. Its a tired trope, but his sense of timing and ear for the field really opens up the possibilities for embodied, imaginative listening. McCann shows the further possibilities of his refined feeling at the three minute mark. Scraping textures (reminiscent of Valerio Tricoli) emerge underneath the tracks blissful exterior. This alteration foreshadows a slight shade of menace that colors the track’s outro. Fascinating and fantastic work. Ten Impressions took Sean McCann four years to realize, but it only takes you five minutes to pre-order one of the 300 copies from Root Strata here – its out next week.