Donnacha Costello – Together Is The New Alone

The title "Together Is The New Alone" fits our era of terrible social media and fake happiness more than ever.

In this noble and impressive album, you guess that Donnacha went through hard times. Loneliness? Nervous breakdown? Loss of a beloved one? Harsh melancholia? Feeling of loneliness in a world that started, in the years around 2000, to drive faster and faster? I don't know, but all tracks' titles won't leave no doubt : That's the work of a soul who is in pain. Most of us already know it : Pain is a seed, from which often grows the most spectacular moments of grace. And for me, this album is definitely one of these.

Not the biggest fan ever of ambient (which is 80% of the time too abstract for me), "Together Is The New Alone" is NEVER in any blankness nor random attitude. It's ambient, but you feel that this heart, beside this minimalistic, cold and calm atmosphere, yells "I'm alive! It hurts! Listen to me!". As a result, this is one of the most "sensitive", "emotion-driven" piece of ambient I have ever heard.

A timeless creation, where micro-beats will never age, and where good-taste and subtle melodies will make hearts string for the many years to come.

Great ambient album. All time and really inspiring state of the art moments while Donnacha playing with ethereal sounds, experimental beats and real melodies and emotions! Timeless!!!

This album is a beautiful, timeless collection of warm, reminiscent pieces. The magnificent synthetic waves of sound in each track wash over you and at times, send chills down your spine. The clicks and beeps tend to fiddle with your head and thoughts at times...interfering with your mental patterns; like a remote control tuning you in to some ancient memory in your mind.

Brilliant album.

On TOGETHER IS THE NEW ALONE, Donnacha Costello creates an album of sublime beauty, pieced together from bits of melody and the silence that lies between the clicks and the blips. “Slowly Sinking In,” the opening track, hums and reverberates to a slightly twitchy rhythm, while “Awake on the Fifth Floor” is like listening to a sunrise in the 24th century. And from the buzz of “In Spite of Everything” emerge some gorgeously melancholy piano chords and despite its 7-minute running time, it doesn’t grow stale. “Daydream Belief” is subtle and hushed -- definitely a track for the headphones. “Nothing, Still Nothing” is reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ambient work, while “Dry Retch” weaves a minimalistic spell. “Always A Part” closes the album with a glitchy drum ‘n’ bass rhythm, layered through with haunting tones. A marvelous album.

This is amazing stuff. .......the sound of silence.....
Beautiful, mystical and refreshing.

Some tracks remind me of Eno and Fripp.
One track reveals a melody in the back only when played at very high levels.
Another track constantly has an upfront chord with noise that hypnotizes you.
...even a drum 'n bass inspired track is found on this one....
In an email conversation we both came to the conclusion that the way I interpreted the music was exactly the same as he meant while writing it.

Together really is the new alone