If you look at the catalog numbers, Inland is Mark Templeton’s second album, although release dates dictate it is his third, his collaboration with video artist aA. Munson (Acre Loss) slipping in between this and his debut, Standing on a Hummingbird. Inland builds upon the recipe selected for the first album and the mood found on Acre Loss. Templeton’s tunes are an amalgam of quiet folk strumming, intimate wordless vocalizing, and experimental electronics. It’s not quite folktronica, as there are no songs here, but a folk-laden form of experimental ambient — something like Fennesz pushed into folk territory. And it works out rather well, even though by design it won’t leave much of a mark. On this album, Templeton achieves a high level of consistency verging on over-homogeneity. Each track is finely chiselled with grainy, almost glitchy textures, and skeletal melodies (more like ghosts of half-remembered melodies). There is a lot of warmth and sweetness lurking amid the layers of quiet static, found sounds, and treated instruments. – François Couture