A beautifully serene collection of tracks dipping into the many pieces of a vapor infused dream.
Exploring the notion of a comprehensive later life
A beautifully serene collection of tracks dipping into the many pieces of a vapor infused dream. This is a fantastic example and homage to the power of minimalism. Question the time lag accumulation and the post lingual dreamy textures. In my ears I heard no accents or glisses, just presence, exploring the notion of a comprehensive later life. The feeling is subtle and low key. Listening brings me a sense of elegant atmospherics with no details. I am learning new drone languages, all deeply subliminal and establishing a warm, restful and easy listening experience.
“Dusk Jacket (Lobby Edit)” (1:29) is the first thing, very short, I hear a rustling motion under sparkling drone smears, and transition from where you were into where this is, which is deeply subliminal. Now something bigger slowly emerges, a green of grey or a bluish-green patina or encrustation on copper or brass caused by atmospheric oxidation. “Verdigris” (6:43) brings you into a satisfying slow pumping and bouncing encased in a dark drone language, something is coming into focus, but not quite yet. “Angest” (3:38) suggests drone waves in slow motion. Imagine more than one witch, which combine with the ringing and shifting, “Whitch” (3:28) is so hard to see.
Drone patterns tracing a circular motion in a cloud ::
Next the world changes, purring metal machines always opening wider but are still concealed in the dark, to “Bring You Life” (2:30) grinding. A slow fade. “Person of Interest” (6:19) is slow to focus, I hear a ringing background but there are hidden features, emerging layers all with a strong deep dark warmth, and a slow fade. Take mint leaves, sugar, water and bourbon, with a larger range of dark tones, “Mint Julep” (3:54) to get the bigger buzz, with the throbbing. “Tumult” (4:56) engages with a higher pitched range of drone activity above a very sleepy din, not so dark as the tracks before.
Now “Eliane” (3:54) enters as the machines keep running, throbbing and sustaining while there are emerging modulations and shifting thickets, I also hear slow airplane engines in dark chop. “Vapour Hold” (2:58) adds increasing texture and variations with almost melodic drone patterns tracing a circular motion in a cloud. This is the concluding section, the closing statement, and you are experiencing the third season, Autumna. Listen again, and later again.
“There is no real red thread running through ‘After Words’, other than a reflection of my state of mind in the aftermath of the pandemic. I was mostly in a good place, re-establishing human contact and re-discovering familiar territory. Coming from an extended period of seclusion and confinement, when we didn’t have much more than words to reach out to others, it sometimes felt as if we were starting over. Almost as if we were meeting familiar faces for the first time, …, after isolation, after words.”
Autumna is located in Antwerpen, Belgium and has 67 titles (so far).
Produced and recorded 12/2021 – 01/2022 by Emile Wauters
Mastered by Thomas Ragsdale
After Words is available on noci miste. [Bandcamp]
