Marcel Sletten - Mammatus Clouds (2023)

Primordial Void is proud to present 'Mammatus Clouds', the third full-length album by Athens, Georgia experimentalist Marcel Sletten. Mostly recorded between November 2021 and October 2022, while Sletten was coping with the loss of his cat and the dissolution of a relationship, Mammatus Clouds is a sprawling 16-track collection of ghostly ambient, folktronica, IDM, and classical pieces that reflect the landscapes of Northern California, Sletten’s homeland, and Athens, Georgia, his new stomping grounds.

Largely inspired by local heroes Elephant 6, Mammatus Clouds is a wildly eclectic set of tracks, jumping from genre to genre at a dizzying pace. Lead single “Ghost” is a psychedelic fusion of folk and ambient music, whereas its digital B-side “Pressure Drop,” featuring Atlanta singer/songwriter Reed Winckler on vocals, is an ethereal indie ballad complete with VST guitar twang. The one-two punch of “Close to You”’s ‘90s slowcore sound and “Russian Hill”’s demented Autechre-style fuckery perfectly demonstrates Sletten’s sonic adventurism. More unexpected influences follow: “The bassline and general feel of ‘Crying’ was inspired by Sonny & Cher’s 'The Beat Goes On' and Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood’s 'Some Velvet Morning', whereas ‘Everlasting Soul’ was penned as a bit of an homage to U.S. Girls’ 'The Island Song,'” he says.

Some may view Mammatus Clouds as a sister album to Irish Words and a Bottle of Myrrh, Sletten’s 2022 “‘Tusk’-lite” CD-R, given the two feature the same amount of tracks and explore similar themes of loss and isolation. However, Mammatus Clouds feels like yet another artistic rebirth for Sletten, as it demonstrates the Athenian oddball delving deeper into the sounds of folk and dance music with fascinating results.

Although Sletten left his heart in Northern California, Mammatus Clouds tells us that he has found solace in Athens, piecing together psychedelic pop instrumentals with a barely-operable laptop and MIDI keyboard. It’s a beautiful, strange mess that sounds unlike anything else coming out of the murky Deep South right now.