“Reduction and eventual expansion.“
If you hunted for ambient music any time in the 2010s you would quickly have come across Loscil (Scott Morgan) and Lawrence English, and followed them as they developed their discographies. It’s very difficult to generalise, but if they had landmark releases, they might be Loscil’s Coast Range Arc (drifting, frigid dronescapes) and English’s A Colour For Autumn (glitching, unfurling guitar-and-synth compositions). These records are masterpieces of ambience in completely different ways and are just two examples of their prowess. English is a very frequent collaborator including big names like Merzbow and William Basinski, and Loscil has worked with other artists only slightly less frequently. If feels natural that the two now find time to release a full collaboration album through Kranky Records.
On Colours of Air, all sound are all sourced from a century old pipe organ at the Old Museum in Brisbane (English’s hometown). This gives the record logical coheorence and “home-sound”; its true defining feature, and the reason I would like to recommend it widely. The two artists manage to tease every required texture from the aeging instrument’s samples. You’ll hear plenty of (what feels like) relatively untreated organ on tracks like “Aqua” and “Black“. The low-end is populated by bassy pulses, used to great effect on “Grey“, “Pink“, and “Violet“. The mid range is occupied by the key melodies of each track, often carried by sheets of carefully crafted drone. In the highs, there are crispy cut-offs and whistling, alarm-like sounds. Creepy textures like the the pitch-shifting pads on “Aqua” give the impression of a rampant spirit, bound in the pipes of the organ itself. The record is free of anything resembing traditional percussion, but several tracks have a rhythmic sound, like the opening of “Cyan“, “Yellow“‘s stuttering backdrop, or “Magenta“‘s ominous sequencing.
Each artist’s previous work uses a wide sound palette and a propensity for experimentation. Therefore, discerning whose input has resulted in which aspects of the soundscapes on Colours Of Air is a fruitless exercise. Whilst the record is not dark ambient in the traditional sense, the overall mood is certainly gloomy, particularly towards the end of the record. Tracks like “Grey” are extremely tense. “Pink” is carried by a deep foghorn like phrase that seems to lead you into the night. The track names suggest the record ponders radically different colours, but I percieve each of these in unsaturated shadow, much unlike the record’s pastel-toned cover. It’s great that the ambiguity of ambient music will lead to many different interpretations on the energy of these pieces.
The record is mostly an exploration of texture, and a deep one at that. The pieces have arcs and mood changes that are achieved through slow cross-fades between new melodies and sounds, rather than changes in musical ideas. Each track thus crafts its own stage, all a bit different and coherent as a record. The strongest tracks are “Black“, a long piece that explores the very gradual crest and fall of rich drones, and “Cyan“, introducing the record through a full sweep of the sonic elements Colours of Air contains.
A focus on texture means Colours of Air might not be the record for you if you hope for high compositional detail. It should certainly be of interest to those who want to be deeply immersed in the world of a digitally-worshipped organ; if you value sonic detail and a cinematic experience, Loscil and Lawrence English have produced a great record for you. What’s excellent is that each track can hold your interest fully for its full duration, as the tracks are brimming with detail in every moment without feeling overstuffed. To me, these tracks are on the cusp of being truly memorable had they taken the compositional complexity a little further – just enough songwriting to give a few tracks some internal transitions between moods. The best ambience can still generate disctinctive moments, and these are a little hard to find here. This is a minor and relatively personal point that should not tar what is a strong record; Colours of Air is a careful and deep exploration of a unique sound source, and deserves to be heard in full, as the centre of your attention.
7/10
Colours of Air is out February 3rd via Kranky Records, and can be pre-ordered here.