1. |
Silent Breeze
03:49
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The opener was one of the songs that emerged from the futile EP 2 sessions. Originally, I wanted something a little bit lighter to follow the title track of Through the Veil, to provide some much-needed respite from the constant onslaught of those 20 minutes. This desire was behind the creation of at least three songs from this album (I eventually gave up until I made “Etruria, Secilia, which finally had the light/dark balance I was looking for… and I ended up using it elsewhere in the album). This is one of my favourites; the reverb-drenched piano at the end reminds me of Brian Eno and Harold Budd’s The Pearl, one of my all-time favourite ambient albums.
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2. |
Clutching at Straws
04:53
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A simple melody repeated multiple times (played as is, without looping, hence inconsistencies in the timing, as apparently I can’t count to 4) and then reversed. This song would probably be little more than an interlude track if not for the interesting way it reversed, but as it stands I actually find it to be one of the album’s more unique songs – the mood is slightly different to the others and that melody is quite infectious.
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3. |
Angel of Light
06:01
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The layers came together really well from the beginning, which allowed me to play with the structure a bit. I felt like I was getting into a habit of having songs start soft and gradually get louder, with more instruments added to the mix. This can be very satisfying but it also meant many of the songs were starting to sound similar and I wanted to change things up, if only a little bit. “Angel of Light” starts off with everything going at once, before suddenly stripping back to just a single element. Everything rebuilds before the violin comes in at the end to finish things off, in an attempt at making it ‘epic’.
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4. |
Lamellae
09:02
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One of the longest songs on the album but also one of the simplest. The song is based around some Sigur Ròs-inspired keys and a simple up-and-down-the-scale melody, with vocal harmonies added later for texture. What I like about this one is how it never stays constant, with elements constantly being added or taken away. However, this is hardly noticeable if you aren’t paying attention as the song also utilises a great deal of repetition.
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5. |
Stars
08:00
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Named after ambient duo Stars of the Lid, this is the spiritual successor to “Eno” from EP 1. The highlight of that previous release was a 20-30 second section in “Eno” towards the end, where all the elements came together really well to provide an almost emotional experience. I wanted to hone in on that moment and try and make a song or, even better, album from it. After playing the initial melody on (virtual) cello, I decided to have it fade in and out in a similar way to how Stars of the Lid do with their own music. I then continued by playing the same melody on more instruments, gradually building the song up to a crescendo. The end section contains about 3 or 4 layers of an organ playing the melody at different times, as I wanted to avoid using strings for the finish, as is so often the case in my songs. This was the first song completed for what was then EP 2 and it inspired me to move forward with more music.
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6. |
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One of the last songs completed for the album, “Disintegration (Slow Decay)” is heavily inspired by William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops. I am not ashamed to admit that it is effectively nothing more than a shameless rip-off of those magnificent works. Of course, the context in which those were created and the way in which they happened are what really give them a great deal of significance, as opposed to being just extended drones. However, I had this loop that I was quite proud of and yet I had no idea what to do with it. At this point, my formula for creating songs was readily apparent and I didn’t want to do yet another “Stars” type of song, as I had grown tired of that and I felt that the album would become uninteresting as a result. This melody reminded me of Basinski’s on those loops and I decided to try and do something similar. I allowed each section of the song to play out for a reasonable amount of time before slowing it down ever so slightly. I wanted to make the melody readily apparent at the beginning so the listener stays interested when things start to get really slow towards the end. There are times when you can hear an almost percussion-like sound which was the result of slowing the song down at those points - technically these are errors that should be removed, but in this case I felt they added a genuine charm to the song so I left them as is.
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7. |
Monument
05:09
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The last song completed for the album. I wanted to have it progress a bit, as opposed to being just yet another endless loop. In the end, it was just too fitting and too tempting to bring back that sweet melody to close out the song, along with the usual violin finish. However, I still believe that this is structurally one of my best songs so far and I would like to progress with this style further, should there ever be more music.
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8. |
River's Edge
08:04
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This song contains perhaps some of the best moments on the album. Like the improvisations from EP 1, a good portion of this work is ‘accidental’, coming from the way I positioned and timed the audio layers on top of each other. However, the constant layering eventually leads to what is, in my opinion, potentially the most beautiful stretch of music I have conjured up thus far (especially from about the 5 minute mark). At its peak, the song consists of 5 instruments playing the same notes in 7 different octaves.
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9. |
Beyond the Light
05:38
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This is by some distance my favourite thing I have done so far. I do not claim any special sort of claim over the music – as per usual, the elements just seemed to come together by themselves. However, it is musically the most progressive and satisfying piece I have managed to come up with until now. After setting up the ethereal basis for the song, I added the pretty keys and found they worked beautifully alongside the other elements. At this point, I had the idea to have a big-sounding string section playing the same melody. To this day, I have not been able to replicate the way I played it here… trust me, I’ve tried (many times). Upon hearing how the strings came out, I just knew I had to have a beat underneath them. This was never in the initial plan, especially for an ambient album! I used an online drum machine to create a simple but effective beat to go with the music. I’m no beat-maker so this is not something I have utilised since, but I would love to explore this further down the line. The song ends with a brief reprise of “Silent Breeze” to bring things full circle, as “The Lights That Beckon” did in Through the Veil.
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Claustrophobia Durban, South Africa
Ambient artist from South Africa, currently residing in Kobe, Japan.
An ever-expanding
discography that encompasses numerous releases covering everything from drone and dark ambient, to harsh noise, sound collage, modern classical, and new age.
... more
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