"Abandoned Spaces" by ODNU + ÜMLAUT is an album that situates itself somewhere between the familiar and the utterly alien, much like discovering a forgotten, overgrown garden in the heart of a city. The album, a collaboration between Michel Mazza and Jeff Düngfelder, is an exercise in reduction, weaving together jazzy undertones with ambient soundscapes, and inviting the listener into a sonic world where every note feels like it's floating in a state of suspended animation.

Opening with "In Numberless Forms", the album immediately sets the tone with a languid, meditative flow that teeters on the edge of becoming something more defined but never quite does. The track is an eight-minute exploration of space and restraint, where electric guitars meander through a landscape of processed sounds and subtle electronics. It's as if ODNU and ÜMLAUT are daring you to find coherence in the mist they create, only to whisk it away just as you think you've grasped it.

"Sleepy I Slept" and "Unforeseen Scenes" continue this meandering journey. The former lulls you into a false sense of serenity with its soporific title, but the music itself is anything but straightforward. The processed guitar lines and ambient textures blend into a haze that feels almost dreamlike — if your dreams were soundtracked by a minimalist jazz ensemble that had forgotten their sheet music at home. The latter track shifts the mood ever so slightly, introducing a sense of unease, like discovering that the abandoned space you’ve wandered into has a few dark corners you hadn’t noticed before.

The title track, "Abandoned Spaces", is perhaps the most evocative piece on the album. It’s a nine-minute odyssey through desolate soundscapes, where the interplay between the electric guitar and electronics suggests both the beauty and the melancholy of forgotten places. There’s a deep sense of nostalgia here, but it’s nostalgia for something you can’t quite put your finger on—a memory that’s been eroded by time.

The album’s liner notes reference Aristotle’s adage that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, and while "Abandoned Spaces" certainly strives for this, one might argue that the whole here is more a mosaic of absences than a cohesive entity. Each track flows into the next with a fluidity that’s admirable, but this seamlessness can also feel like a refusal to commit to any one idea. The music, much like its title suggests, often feels abandoned, left to drift aimlessly in an ambient fog.

That’s not to say there aren’t moments of brilliance. The detailed sound design is impeccable, and the way ODNU and ÜMLAUT handle their instruments—particularly the interplay of guitar and electronics—shows a level of craftsmanship that is truly impressive. But there’s a deliberateness to their refusal to provide the listener with any real sense of closure. Even in the final track, "A Wishing Choice", the album ends not with a resolution, but with a question mark — a fitting conclusion to a work that seems more interested in the spaces between the notes than the notes themselves.

In the context of ambient and experimental music, "Abandoned Spaces" sits comfortably among the works of artists like William Basinski or even Brian Eno, though with a more improvisational, jazz-inflected approach. It's a record that demands patience and an open mind; it's not here to entertain in the traditional sense, but rather to envelop, to subtly shift your perception of time and space.

Yet, this album also flirts with the danger of being too subtle for its own good. In its meticulous attention to detail and atmosphere, there’s a risk that "Abandoned Spaces" could easily drift into the background, becoming a ghostly presence rather than a commanding one. For listeners willing to give it the attention it requires, the rewards are there — buried in the mix, hidden in the spaces between the sounds. But for those seeking something more immediate, more tangible, the album’s enigmatic nature might prove frustrating.

"Abandoned Spaces" is a record that’s as much about what isn’t there as what is. It’s a sonic exploration of absence, a tone poem where the pauses and the spaces between sounds carry as much weight as the notes themselves. ODNU and ÜMLAUT have crafted an album that is both meditative and elusive, a work that asks more questions than it answers.

For those who appreciate the delicate art of restraint, the album offers a beautifully textured landscape to get lost in. But if you're looking for something that leaves a lasting impact, that provides more than just a fleeting glimpse of brilliance before receding back into the ether, "Abandoned Spaces" might feel a bit like its title — an intriguing place, but one that you might not return to once you’ve left.