“Sound haunts architecture.”
We live in an era where the most played ambient music comes from ghost writers that have already departed. All facets of their sound and presentation are optimised for virality. It’s now known that these ‘artists’ are direct commissions by the platforms themselves (the ‘Perfect Fit Content’ as broken by Liz Pelly through Harper’s Magazine). Among many things at stake are the meaningful connections between listeners and artists. The ambiguity of ambient music makes such a connection only more essential. Lawrence English stands among many key figures in the ambient scene whose music has been thoroughly un-playlist-able from its inception, demanding of close examination and working best understood within its original context. Having a discography has never been so subversive, but this is the state of play in 2025.
English’s new record Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is essentially installation music, composed upon invitation from the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2022. It features contributions from eleven musicians, with key credits to Chris Abrahams and Jim O’Rourke, and other ambient-heavy-hitters Claire Rousay, Norman Westberg, Chuck Johnson, and Dean Hurley. English also gives limelight to some less-established artists: Amby Downs, JW Paton, Madeleine Cocolas, Stephen Vitiello, and Vanessa Tomlinson, but the goal of the piece is to blend these contributions together rather than separate them. English uses this record to ponder the concept of place and space in both architecture and sound. The formlessness of the drones at play here are a reflection on more tangible walls, halls, homes and galleries. If this is too lofty most listeners, the charm of instrumental music is to allow it to take you to your own imagined place. And Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is a special place indeed.
The record begins with an unlikely hero: a piano, performed simply and carefully. The player doesn’t flex; notes come in waves, never jumping too far in pitch. Such a style is synonymous with easy listening ambience, risking little except that it could resemble the slop you might find on a featured playlist. Persevere, and find this idea is turned on its head, as the accompanying drones form around our disinterested pianist. Their swell is a confluence of many, many textures: organ pedals, feedbacking guitars, echoing brass, sheets dragged miles away; or even none of the above – it’s so formless that the original source becomes a best guess. The interplay of the piano and drone has created tangible suspense as we begin to await each flutter of the keys from the wall of fog. It’s so effective that the piano’s departure and return from movements “II” to “III” may make you gasp. The same trick is played across “V” through “VI”, where the piano remains dormant to allow the record’s darkest drones to form. When the keys return on “VII”, they collapse the dissonance into melody, like a rainbow chasing in a storm’s wake.
The relationship between the piano and the drone proves to be curiously magnetic. The piano carries only a hint of reverb, enough to make it a coherent figurehead for the dronescape without denting its immediacy. And yet the background subtly rises to meet the notes as they come. Some notes ring out until they become submerged in the undertow. At other times, the drones beget the piano in a feat of premonition. The drones themselves are constructed from multitudes, possessing an unearthly smoothness at all times. English, credited as a composer and not a performer, has simply directed and collaged these elements from his contributors. Do they align deliberately, or do they happen to converge along the same horizon?
Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds’ only concession to modern tastes is that its continuous soundscape is split into individual tracks for convenience (purists can find the full forty four minute cut on Bandcamp). Despite this format, it’s still a thoroughly accessible record, featuring agreeable and engrossing textures throughout. It’s most similar to his Selene record with pianist Akira Kosemura, and the dark drones recall his collaboration with Loscil (Colours of Air and Chroma). The most compelling element of Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds must be its and a compelling structure – its epic format allows the piece to unfold at an uncommon and welcome pace. This is the sort of ambient record the world needs more of.
8/10
Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds releases on the 31st January and can be ordered here. Read Liz Pelly’s piece on Spotify’s “Perfect Fit Content” here.