missing scenes :: dream or memory? (Varia)

missing scenes explores a love of nature, darkness, light, and the importance of memory, sleep, and dreaming. The rich tapestry of Kurosawa’s Dreams is mirrored in dream or memory‘s? sonic vignettes, bringing together memories of the peach orchard, the kitsune wedding, the watermill village, and Van Gogh’s crows.

Brilliant cinematic colors and magical realism

Featuring textural colors and a rhythmic complexity employing the sound of real drums with ambient drone loops, to bring to mind the brilliant cinematic colors and magical realism that make up Japanese film master Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. That 1990 film provides inspiration for dream or memory?

For over two decades, R. Hunter has been creating music under a variety of monikers and in various projects, like Conversations About the Light, Occulted Sound, Self Spiller and Snares of Sixes. Hunter launched missing scenes in 2021, initially with a series of moon-themed recordings: three albums created between and dedicated to our full moon cycles. Following the triptych’s completion, Hunter recorded the who is this for? full length album, exploring the themes of waxing and waning, mystery, and distance. A quarter of a century since he first saw the Kurosawa film, scenes from Dream’s vignettes still appear to Hunter unbidden but never unwelcome. To fully realize these vignettes, percussion is present for the first time on a missing scenes album, courtesy of Steve Lyman.

missing scenes explores a love of nature, darkness, light, and the importance of memory, sleep, and dreaming. The rich tapestry of Kurosawa’s Dreams is mirrored in dream or memory‘s? sonic vignettes, bringing together memories of the peach orchard, the kitsune wedding, the watermill village, and Van Gogh’s crows.

Hunter tends to perform pieces live just once, and because he had recently performed material from prior release who is this for?, decided a new piece was needed. The initial outlines of dream or memory? came via a live performance at Megalith in Portland, Oregon on a shared bill with two talented musicians, Andrew Anderson and Jori Apedaile. Though missing scenes was never envisioned as a rhythmic or song-based project, upon hearing Lyman’s darkly beautiful album Spiral Hunter was inspired to reach out, feeling Lyman’s percussion would add an interesting new element to dream or memory?

A cohesive statement ::

Additionally, field recordings provide the connective tissue in dream or memory?’s compositions. They bring the compositions together into a cohesive statement. Captured on hiking trips around the Vancouver area in Washington State, on location in Peoria and Jerome, Arizona and in Hunter’s living room, they serve a purpose greater than decoration or enhancement. The light on the forest floor. The darkness just below the surface. dream or memory? speaks to the liminality which binds these two states.

As the eyes dim, the ears open. We fade into a string and a haze with voices, a man talking, perhaps a language training exercise or Japanese poetics, “dream or memory?” (6:18) makes me think that I hear some few flying dragons up there, amidst rolls and electronic throbbing. Somebody is talking, perhaps explaining this dream’s concept while barking cricket monsters are roaming around. “naturally occurring brushstrokes” (8:01) evokes an ocean wind or a desert wind, and a train, a rolling drum core with all the noodling stringed instruments.

“you fear closing your eyes for darkness, but would you want a night so bright you cannot see the stars?” (9:35), which causes me to assume that if you are seeing the stars you probably are not dreaming, but it is night. The drums soon show up and own the place, maybe there are people talking in another language (or backwards? Please help us David Lynch), at some points the drone is taking over but the drum is steadily beating too. With a symphonic fade-in the final track begins, “time we’ve lost to wakefullness” (5:35) bringing together field recordings, rattling, pounding, squeaks, electronics, suspense and the tension grows into reverberating feedback. I might hear squeaky train brakes in the tunnel, the sound is hollow with growing tension, hidden sparks, and more tension explodes, then gets quiet.

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dream or memory? was recorded at Missing Studio, Vancouver, Washington in the spring of 2024, mixed during the summer months by Theo Howarth at Highfield Studio, UK, and mastered by Jori Apedaile in the fall. Cover design, layout & logo by Sjøli Design.

dream or memory? is available on Varia. [Bandcamp | Disco]