Amongster

a•mong•ster | a person or subject as a part of, instead of seperate from his environment, one with its environment Amongster is the alias of Ghent- based musician and songwriter Thomas Oosterlynck. After his debut album ‘Trust Yourself To The Water’, released in 2016 and recorded with producer Jasper Maekelberg, Thomas Oosterlynck is now focusing on the second chapter of his dreamy alias Amongster. The winner of De Nieuwe Lichting 2014 presents ten fresh songs that feel more intimate. The smooth haunting voice remains up front in the mix but ‘there’s’ less synths and more guitars on the new album. Oosterlynck has also fallen in love with woodwinds. The indie pop of Amongster sounds more organic and timeless these days. The bands that inspired Oosterlynck? Iron & Wine, Andy Shauf, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, the refined approach of Sufjan Stevens and -noblesse oblige- “the nice tinkering (of the band) of a lad called Thom Yorke”. Thomas writes his songs at home while recording them. The lo-fi approach and a detailed ear for (programmed) bleeps, layers and clicks unmistakably define the DNA of Amongster’s music. To add extra dynamics to the album, producer Reinhard Vanbergen was involved in the mixing of the original takes. ‘A New Arrival’ is a dynamically layered, tasteful, balanced record with hopeful, thoughtful, light and warm-hearted aspects. The same melancholic predilection for pure aesthetics is also seen in the cover, a creation by visual artist Sammy Slabbinck.