motel void

Following their 2023 single Halcyon and the EP Ephemerality, the duo KTGB — short for Keep The Giraffe Burning — return with their first full-length album, The Death of Stars.

This conceptual record opens with Conflagration, a thirty-second piece that’s more a field recording than a song – the sound of crackling fire sets the tone and seamlessly fades into the next track, Atlas V. The flames give way to a long, ambient drone: what begins as a subtle, almost folk-like atmosphere soon dissolves into haunting echoes. The result is an eight-minute ambient surge that feels vast and cosmic in scope. After an uneasy beginning, a softer mood arrives around the two-minute mark as additional instruments join in and the sound expands. Familiar hints of drums and guitars foreshadow a more epic progression – the rhythm grows almost battle-like before the track breaks into a grand, melodic climax. In its final moments, Atlas V slips back into a dusty, “western” mood, with only reverb-drenched guitar tones left hanging in the air.

No other track on the album reaches that same length, but Waltz for Hurt follows with a beautiful, ambient instrumental atmosphere. Its gentle mood contrasts sharply with a jarring, shouted monologue urging listeners to “get mad,” before the voice fades and the song closes on the shimmering sound of a cymbal.

One of my favorite instrumentals here is Per Aspera, which carries the emotional thread of Waltz for Hurt but deepens and widens it. The guitar work is gorgeous – fluid and luminous – layered with snippets of a male and female conversation. About a minute and a half in, a clear guitar melody emerges like a ray of light breaking through clouds. The piece alternates between calm and epic passages, with that central riff gliding throughout like a steady current.

On All Will Be Lost and especially Stravinsky’s Dream, the guitars recede slightly into the background – a welcome shift in texture. Stravinsky’s Dream is a hazy, six-minute ambient stretch driven by bass synths; toward the end, a beautifully distorted motif appears, making it one of the album’s most mesmerizing highlights.

The closing track, Dear Wormwood, begins with a hypnotic, almost childlike motif – something that feels strangely familiar, as if buried deep in memory. Layers slowly build upon it until the song blooms into a full-band sound halfway through, creating an epic, melancholic, yet deeply hopeful atmosphere. It’s a powerful ending – one that leaves you with a sense of quiet uplift and lingering warmth, as if the embers of that opening fire were still glowing somewhere in the distance.

The Death of Stars is an album that rewards patient listening – a slow-burning journey through ambience, emotion, and subtle transformation. KTGB manage to merge organic warmth with cosmic vastness, crafting a sound that feels both intimate and infinite.

This album was discovered via SubmitHub

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