Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto

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  • However distantly, ambient music always seems intrinsically linked to nature, an alternative soundtrack to the constant hum of our shared space. So when Lawerence English—founder of the room40 imprint—entitled his Touch debut Kiri No Oto, a Japanese phrase for "sound of fog," it seemed like a sensible connection, invoking a visual sensation that might easily translate into music. Combining field recordings from Poland, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan with organ sounds, analog filtering, and harmonic drone sections, English has created an album just as transporting as the fog- and oceanscapes he's exploring. Dense coils of distortion coalesce into diffuse, light-streaked passages, revealing undulations in balance that waver between eerie calm and new motion. English creates a head space for the most foreign elements of the natural world, embracing the kinetic surf and blow of mist while respecting its natural lethargy, its willingness to shift and dip without overcoming its environment. But English is rarely content with long gliding organ tones, or the overwrought emotional aspects his subject might too easily evoke. His compositions evolve in the unclockable time of the outdoors. He keeps them in a constant flux that mirrors the unpredictable calms and clamors of his environment. He depends on subtle countertextures to expose anything that glistens or reflects too much to the sandpapering of salt-air. The uneasy textures of opener "Organs Lost at Sea" break unexpectedly, giving into the morning-after spell of "Soft Fuse." "White Spray," with its caustic squalls of noise, is sifted into the distant church-like tones of "Waves Sheer Light," which achieves the lightless illumination feel of anything seen through a cloak of fog or mist. "Lullaby" is even murkier, with its harmonic elements contrasted by a deep, dim racket like something banging against sunken metal, hidden beneath the sea. Ostensibly the subtlest piece here, "Figure's Lone Static" is busier beneath the surface than you first think, twisting bristling noise into a repeating, two-tone organ part until they both dissolve into "Oamura"'s leaden drones. As always with English's work on Kiri No Oto though, it's structured to feel like its testing the limits of its own atmosphere without really moving, lapping at the spots where the water's warmer, the air more breathable.
  • Tracklist
      01. Organs Lost At Sea 02. Soft Fuse 03. White Spray 04. Waves Sheer Light 05. Commentary 06. Allay 07. Figure's Lone Static 08. Oamura
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