With Great Care - With Great Care (Aural Canyon, 2020)

The Aural Canyon label is no stranger to this little blog of ours, mainly because we have much love for their delicious brand of audio bliss.  Our orbits are very aligned with theirs, and we eagerly anticipate each new release from the imprint.  This particular cassette has been rattling our ear drums for awhile, and it is a shame that we haven’t had the bandwidth to spill any ink about it in months past, because it’s so damn good!

Modular synth wizard Grainger Weston is behind the moniker With Great Care, and this is his debut.  It’s a pretty epic release, though – so well-tuned as a matter of fact that it’s hard to believe this guy hasn’t been cranking out synth-scapes for eternity.  Or maybe he has, and this is the first time that he’s dared to attach his incorporeal emanations to a physical form.  One can never be sure…

This is the kind of modular jamming we love around here: the music carefully balances a mix of ambient hues behind a melodic foreground and fractured loops that coalesce into tide pools of undifferentiated sound.  Such weirdness can create a kaleidoscopic effect, as can be heard on “Swim”, in which oblique patterns emerge and recede almost constantly as the lengthy piece unfolds.  At other times there is an unnerving, extraterrestrial vibe that takes hold.  The alien atmospheres of “Horizon” with its glitchy lexicon is exemplary of such an unearthly mode.

Unique in its execution is “Blue”, in which a sprightly – almost pachinko-esque – melody is sparsely peppered over a barely present hum.  It’s like Weston is jamming freely on his modular, really exploring the outer reaches of melody, tone and timbre.  The whole thing is thrilling.  As a matter of fact, the entire tape is a stunner from beginning to end – definitely one that we will be jamming while under quarantine, and beyond.

Aural Canyon have copies of this expansive and entrancing cassette over at their Bandcamp, so grab yourself a copy, hunker down, and drift away on clouds of synth.

øjeRum - Selv I Drømme Lyser Den Første Sne (Aural Canyon, 2019)

You’re probably wondering, ‘another øjeRum review?’  Well, we happened to have a bunch of his releases in our stack, so we couldn’t help but spilling a little more ink about this ultra-prolific Dane.  This one is a cassette reissue from our friends over at Aural Canyon of an LP that originally came out on the German label Midira Records.  It must be said that both editions are worth owning just for the artwork alone, although the vinyl is long sold out at source.  Each edition is graced with its own handsome collage created by Paw Grabowski himself.

The vinyl version of Selv I Drømme Lyser Den Første Sne (English translation: even in dreams the first snow glows) pairs classic øjeRum ambient bliss with an interpretation on cello by Aaron Martin on the flip.  The cassette changes things up a bit.  The original piece remains, but the B Side contains a ‘dual version’, in which Martin’s cello and Grabowski’s loop-based ambient shimmer are played together.  The result is unbelievably breathtaking.

Fans of øjeRum’s oeuvre will be pleased by the eponymous 20-minute long monolith of minimalism – with its craftily-arranged loops and richly-hued sonic textures.  When floating alongside the cello’s wavelike sheen, the drones seem to flourish, to grow deeper and more complex.  This music is evocative enough to bring tears to your eyes, but its origins are not in melancholy.  These emotions are rooted in an indescribable beauty, an experience that must be undertaken to completely understand the sheer immensity.

Aural Canyon still has a handful of copies of this captivating release as of this writing, so let the winter winds whisk you off toward their Bandcamp and enjoy… 

Lunaria - Mist and Light (Aural Canyon, 2019)

Here we have our second investigation into the mystical world of the Texas-based Aural Canyon label.  This time around, we are probing the nocturnal wanderings of Spanish sound weaver Daniel Guillén, who records as Lunaria.  With Mist and Light, Guillén expresses a thoughtful nod to the space our mind inhabits when it is hovering between wakefulness and sleep.  The four pieces he offers were realized over the course of three years as he explored what he refers to as the “harmonious relationship between darkness and clarity, mist and light, unconsciousness and lucidity”.  Each is a unique take on this inward journey toward nocturnal rest, an encapsulation of deep introspection into how our consciousness drifts toward unconsciousness.

The tape leads off with “Lullaby for the Clouds”, a drifting piece of ambient bliss, complete with lilting melodies, lush synths, and a deep heartbeat of a bass line.  Layers of sound roll in like a welcome fog over a pristine body of water, the sense of tranquility being enhanced by each element.  This track is love incarnate.  “Numinous” takes on somewhat of a darker tone, with uncanny melodies that feel suspenseful.  The thick synths are woven together with a cinematic sensibility that is quite intense.

On the flip is the eponymous track, a slightly alien but ultimately angelic piece of music.  A sprightly rhythmic element is played against elegiac chords and a delicate melodic lead.  Choral pads emphasize the heavenly nature of this gorgeous track.  “Secret Path” is also quite beautiful, but in a somewhat mysterious, almost playful way.  Droplets of melody are sprinkled gingerly across cascading waves of synthetic chords, which emanate like contrails from Guillén’s delicate fingertips.  This wave-like undulation seemed to sync up with my own brainwaves, lulling me into an almost hypnagogic state – but I guess that’s ultimately the intent here.

You too can explore inner space with Lunaria; head on over to the Aural Canyon Bandcamp and prepare to be entranced.

PJS - Hermes (Aural Canyon, 2018)

I was first introduced to the music of PJS through another project that Jordan Christoff – half of the duo alongside Patrick Dique – is involved with, Saturn’s Daughter.  In that project, Christoff and Michelle Mostacci sling nature-influenced drone works that are recorded live to tape with no overdubs or computers involved.  With PJS, Christoff and Dique offer more crystalline patterns, with deep shimmering textures that at times stray toward the uncanny.  The pair have been playing together for over twelve years, and this extensive tenure is evinced by how cohesive their music unfolds; its structures are built by seasoned collaborators.

Hermes is the duo’s 2nd official cassette, but it’s their first for the Texas-based Aural Canyon imprint.  Christoff commemorates special dates such as equinoxes and solstices with musical offerings, and as such this tape arrived on All Souls’ Day, the closing of Allhallowtide.  Far from being a haunted affair – which would align with the season – the music that lies herein is flavored by the cosmos.  Along with synths, samplers, field recordings and magic boxes, the liner notes list air, rainbows, melody, water, portals, and texture among the elements used to fabricate the pair’s twilit drones.

Each of the six tracks expresses a unique mood, but the entire song cycle maintains a consistent sense of ebb and flow throughout.  This allows for the lengthier tracks such as “111” and “Ethereal” to travel through various landscapes without straying too far afield from their intended paths.  It also offers room for the duo to experiment with oblique and unnatural tones, such as the ghostly howls at the mid-way point of “Ethereal” or the alien gurgles of “Liquid”.  The sheer immensity of the material itself is reminiscent of some of the more epic moments from New Zealand’s Campbell Kneale and his Birchville Cat Motel project, which I’ve been meaning to dig into my archived boxes of CDs to re-investigate.  PJS have slaked my monolithic drone thirst with this stunning release.

Dive into the ocean of drone by directing your mouse pointer to this link to the Aural Canyon Bandcamp; physical copies are still available.