The first sound that you`ll hear is a drone, a sigh. A wordless song of shadows, cinematic, and dark in tone. Gradually, gracefully, this is illuminated by strings, which seem to summon a sense of resolve, while rhythms are rendered from what could be footsteps and handclaps. A distorted melody rushes by, almost out of earshot. Clipped as if burnt, or still burning. Its urgency fading into unhurried harp-like glissando, puckered, flickering, fluttering, patterns. Is it possible for a noise to be dappled? Alarm bells ring and sine waves spin backwards, the phase all whacked, but slowly aligning, like the calming of a storm out at sea. Scurrying sonics, the scratching of a thousand violins, elevates the drama, the anticipation, until a recognizable theme is ripped from the ether, its beauty weathered, jagged, sharp. Microtones vibrate like magnetized mercury caught, dancing balletic, between poles. This soundtrack scoring perhaps intimate scenes, fleeting fragments of happiness frozen for moments. Piano comes in pinpoints, pretty, like rainfall, and a harmonic hum is honed from serene sustain and static. The edges of this atmosphere are corroded, corrupt, adding to the emotions it invokes. Amplifying the feeling of love, sorrow, treasured times passed. A metallic roar rises, only to be smothered by symphonic sweetness. Simple chimes chatter, while the bottom-end bellows. Building in intensity, before discharging its lightning, dissipating, back to bucolic. Then there’s the crackle of a needle, a stylus, forgotten, full of dust, stuck in the runout, caught in the click of a final locked groove. 

This really is a beautiful musical journey, which is made all the more incredible when you know how it was created. Extending to close to eighty minutes, everything on Clara was sourced from a three-minute orchestral recording. The specially commissioned piece was lathe-cut to 7” vinyl, which Cascadian artist Scott Morgan, aka loscil, then proceeded to scratch, sample, and manipulate. 

loscil`s latest long-player, Clara, can be purchased directly from Kranky.

You can hear music from this release, plus other recently reviewed ambient / post-classical / electronica albums, here:

Track-list
loscil – Stella – Kranky
Cass – Hey Sun – Growing Bin
Blank Gloss – Virga – Kompakt
MLO – Wimborne – Music From Memory
Ayane Shino – Hagoromo – Musicmine
Michal Turtle & Suso Saiz – Buenovintra Beckons – Planisphere Editorial
Hugh Small & Brian Allen Simon – Viridians – Melody As Truth
Blank Gloss – Walking Toward The End – Kompakt
Pablo Color & Lexx – Aire Nocturno – Ish
Cass – Dooley – Growing Bin
MLO – Melt – Music From Memory
Ayane Shino – Kodomotachi – Musicmine
loscil – Lumina – Kranky