Phil Dudman (@phildudman)
MixMag

It’s not often an unknown album gets the repeat treatment four times in an afternoon, which marked Transsiberian as something special.

Sure, I’m a natural born sucker for concept albums and always a willing passenger for a musical journey, but this debut LP from Thylacine, aka 23-year-old Frenchman William Rezé, delivers with intelligence and on an epic scale.

Producing the entire album with a backpack studio in his cabin on the famous Moscow to Vladivostok railway, Rezé discovers then recreates a sonic landscape inspired at every stop by the sounds and people he chances upon, records and samples.

From rhythmic, techno train wheels to choir singers, bell ringers and singing shaman’s daughters, Transsiberian melds stunning field recordings with tracks of rich, melodic ambience and pounding, evocative electronica—signalling the arrival of a producer whose maturity belies his years.   

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