Hotel Neon - Vanishing Forms (2019)

Hotel Neon is a trio from Philadelphia, which has appeared on these pages [and hopefully on your rotations] ever since their self-released and self-titled Hotel Neon debut in 2013. The album has been subsequently picked up by Home Normal, with the band’s followups, Remnants (2016) and Context (2017) appearing on Fluid Audio, and migration with Means of Knowing (2018) to Agustín Mena’s (aka Warmth) Archives imprint. For their latest release, titled Vanishing Forms, the trio returns to Archives, with eight ambient atmospheres that blanket a spinning mind. The vastly spanning and highly textured pieces drown all anguish and polish the sharp edges of that troublesome thought. Listening to this music is like opening your eyes on the beach facing a boundless ocean, with an intense realization that at this moment all is real and everything else is just product of a projected and forever fueled in worry ego. This is how things truly are… And if you don’t have the luxury of an ocean near your dwelling, at least you can reflect on the presence in your headphones, with Hotel Neon spraying all the vapours of their waves.