Jon Tye’s latest long-player as Ocean Moon lifts its title from Angus Maclise’s poem, Universal Solar Calendar. Maclise, a maverick / modern day shaman-like figure was part of New York’s `60s avant garde art scene. An original member of The Velvet Underground, he devised his own calendar, where there were no months, and instead every day had its own name. Ways To The Deep Meadow refers to January 1st (1).

The album is divided into 3 separate suites. The first is concerned with Ai. However, rather than focussing on the usual anxieties / fears of a dystopian future, Tye, here, instead views technological advancement as a natural step in human evolution (2). Inspired by concepts such as the Gaia Hypothesis and the Omega Point. The 5 tracks, adding up to around 15 minutes, amount to an ambient tapestry of diaphanous drones and field recordings. Water bubbles and rushes, in waterfalls, streams and downpours, while synths swell and programmed percussion raises mellow marimba-like tides. Sequences stretch and buzz like sitars and vaporised voices float in clouds. Woodwind whistles and woodblocks are woven together with squelchy sine waves and ethereal angelic exclamations. Pretty music box chimes counter drum circle rituals. I’ve no idea if Ai was actually used.

The second part of the album, though, was created using American artist Holly Herndon’s Holly+ app. Composed for Janine Rook’s exhibition Made In Dreams, the music was constructed by reading text from the exhibition catalogue into Herndon’s app. The result is a gentle gong bath of slow, overlapping, singing bowl-like ringing.

The third and final section, An Ending Full Of Light, originally accompanied Vix Hill-Ryder’s documentary The Wild Edges. A beautiful short designed to draw attention to the importance of biodiversity and the dangers of over cultivation, Tye’s score, suitably, summons images of a lush, enchanted amazon. The melody, like tiny bells being struck, tolling, tumbling in cascades, patterns like rain, and mixing in a delicate dance with the sound of real showers. Piano paints a picture of bluer skies and the weather breaking.

NOTES

(1) One of the reasons commonly cited for Maclise’s departure from The Velvets was his strict adherence to this solar calendar – which meant he was consistently late or absent from rehearsals and gigs. 

(2) If we want to reach for the stars, be here to go, then surely we must shed the physical, the corporeal? 

Ocean Moon’s Ways To Deep Meadow can be ordered directly from Music From Memory.