If Windy & Carl's vision of Antarctica is your idea of bliss, you will drool over this soundscape depiction of Peter Wright's home in New Zealand. Now living in London, these are what the label calls "love-drones," as Wright's memories of his home's wide open spaces inspire slowly unfolding waves of lush guitar. "The Chain Bridge" opens the album with Rothko-esque pulses of bass tones, flowing through the song like small ripples in the water beneath a haze of soft feedback. "Offa's Dyke" is even more pure and bare, slowing down time with a trembling cloud of guitar that expands and drifts apart like the clouds across the song's 13 minutes. "Yellow Horizon" continues the calming tone, but with a fragile, crystalline guitar structure, sounding like Mi Media Naraja-era Labradford. Deep in a trance from the song's first twenty minutes, the miniscule builds in tempo and structure that follow in the middle of the album can easily overwhelm your senses. The guitar of "Bannockburn" comes out of nowhere, emerging from the ether, first following a pattern like muted church bells, but picking up the pace and sharpening the tone to create tension. The moderate pace of "Pendulum" also seems heightened when compared to the calm, open meadows of the rest of the album. Eastern-sounding string instruments give the song a Hala Strana-like feel as a persistent strum stirs the cauldron, emitting dark tones from a second guitar. The album ends on a similar note to how it begun, bringing the heartbeat back down and enjoying the view, using the purest micro-drones and tones in the forlorn-sounding "Song for the Losers" and the brightly hued "Wonderful."
|
jim steed at 01:57 PM July 13, 2005
Trackback Pings
This entry's TrackBack is:
http://www.fakejazz.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tback.cgi/201
Comments
A very worthwhile addition for any drone afficionados. Very pure sounds and varied ambiances, some titles referring to historical events of the United Kingdom : Scottish wars of independence (Bannockburn, 14th century), Offa's Dyke (man-made earthwork separating the Welsh and the kingdom of Mercia, 8th century), Song for the Losers, etc.
All the sounds have a strong organic feel, with some reverb and highly hypnotic drones.
Posted by: diving_slow
at July 19, 2005 09:24 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)


