With Standing / Engraving, Jean D.L. articulates a poised dialogue between presence and erosion, crafting a delicate work at the intersection of experimental folk guitar and electroacoustic abstraction. The Belgian artist, known for collaborations with Julia Kent, Lee Ranaldo, and Echo Collective, shapes this LP as a stream of solitary sketches — each informed by a sensitivity to fugitive detail. Released on Belgium’s Vlek label, the record moves slowly, tracing lines between plangent blues phrases, blurry drones, and the tactile imprint of field recordings.

The opening piece, “Standing,” unfurls nearly ten minutes of crystalline guitar lines, twisted gently with atmospheric noises reminiscent of an empty nocturnal street or the scraping of memory itself. The album bends traditional instrumentation: what resembles folk or blues is filtered through a weathered lens, transformed into something spectral and obliquely cinematic. “Engraving” closes the set with haunting clarity, the final notes lingering in the air like marks etched on glass. Between these poles, detours such as “Yde – First Detour” and “Spines” introduce minimal core melodies and textural anomalies — subtle interruptions to Jean D.L.’s stoic, Lowlands poetics.

A notable feature throughout the album is the seamless integration of natural sound and the resonances born of space itself. This gives the music a sense of gentle unrest: each piece feels faded yet intimate, embracing imperfection and background hum as part of its language. Echoes of collaborators can be traced in the album’s emotional grounding — the deep listening approach of Margaret Hermant and the shadowy noise inflections brought by Lee Ranaldo round the music’s edges, without ever overshadowing Jean D.L.’s vision.