Imagine, if
you will, the following scenario: you wake up, get dressed, go to work, finish
work, travel back home, do various chorus at home and finally, after the last
corner of the room has been dusted and hovered you sit down to relax. One might
watch some television. Someone else might read a book or solve a puzzle. Me? I
listen to Ambient music.
It’s not
that I am unable to stomach different kinds music. Quite the contrary. I love
my Mumford & Sons’s and Katy Perry’s as much as the next
man/woman. But something about this music keeps me captivated and interested. I
don’t know if it’s the warm, soothing calmness of the sounds, or the soft
rhythmic textures? Or perhaps the minimalistic yet immersive layering? All I
know is that I find that I’ve got difficulty in finding the emotional
atmosphere anywhere else than this particular genre. I find new releases on a
weekly, sometimes daily, basis and every release becomes a new obsession. Some
of them stick, some of them don’t.
But the
music of Spokane, Washington based Drew Sullivan, better known as Slow Dancing Society, certainly stuck with me in a way very few other artists can. I came
across his first release "The Sound ofLights When Dim" by accident. If I recall correctly I found it while
stumbling the web on the prowl for new music and when I listened to the album
it just got to me. I could actively listen to it and find a new hook or melody
in a song with every repeated listen, or I could just leave it in the
background. It made my everyday sweep of the internet a lot more comfortable.
It didn’t take me too long to check out his other albums as well and before I
knew it he was in my top 4 on Last.FM and he remains there to this day.
And now, in
2012, 2 years after the release of the exquisite "Under the Sodium Lights" (which was an amazingly deep drone album
which lost a lot of the rhythm, but none of the beautiful layers and edited
guitar that I came to know and love) he now comes with "Laterna Magica."
Brian Eno
once said that ambient music is about, “creating an ambience, a sense of place
that complements and alters your environment”. Sullivan understands this very
well. The first wave of music that hits your ears surrounds you with a warm,
nostalgic feeling. A feeling that almost feels like a memory. It’s not an
inherently happy memory, and it’s not a sad one either. It’s a memory of a time
where you felt completely at ease. It gives your head some space to ponder over
important and unimportant things. I agree that that sounds a little bit like
I’m close to be admitted into a psychiatric ward but I don’t know how else to
explain it. This album is sonic melancholy.
The single,"I’ll Leave A Light On", conjures up a
feeling of content loneliness. It sounds less like a track on a CD and more
like a musical aid to a movie that has never been made. Soft layers of acoustic
guitar with sparse piano complement the rich synth textures underneath. This
track is also the go-to example if you want to know what his CD is all about.
The other tracks on the album follow the same path, layering synthesized
rhythmic elements with live acoustic instruments, and Laterna Magica eloquently delivers an album that is sonically
vaguely reminiscent of Guitar Based Ambient gods Hammock and the lesser known Kwajbasket
without ever sounding like it’s borrowing from them. I have always (wrongly)
viewed this particular style of Ambient music as interchangeable, an opinion
quickly changed after discovering SDS and it’s certainly an opinion that will
not return after listening to Laterna
Magica. If you are looking for a soundtrack to your day off, or a soothing
sleeping aid this is the album to look for.
All in all
it’s a well-rounded release, full of little interesting segments that leaves
you wanting for more. I will be looking forward to more SDS in the future. But
for now this reviewer is more then happy to be stuck with Laterna Magica for a while.
OUT NOW ON HIDDEN SHOAL RECORDINGS
~Chris
OUT NOW ON HIDDEN SHOAL RECORDINGS
~Chris
8.9