Early Moon :: Overflowing (Polar Seas)

Overflowing delivers an oceanic body of shifting harmonies, melodious vibes, and cool, soft-rock resonances. Sparse textural ambient motifs punctuate the ensemble, as in the granular and free-flowing “Sunbird.” Emotionally, the music is entirely connected with hope and gentle bitterness.

An oceanic body of shifting harmonies

Brad Deschamps is a busy sound artist and talented producer involved in numerous projects (anthéne, North Atlantic Drift, Rosales), highly appreciated by avid listeners of craft-based ambient music and beyond. I had the pleasure of listening to and reviewing a handful of albums he has made, and more generally releases from his labels Polar Seas and Floralia. Polar Seas now stands among the major indie labels with an interest in organic and chamber-like ambient music, alongside Home Normal, Past Inside The Present, Hibernate, Sound in Silence, and Dead Pilots.

In this regard, the cassette rewild (published on Floralia) was a marvelous, emotional, and profound musical voyage to the confines of micro-noise and instrumental post-rock ambient, augmented by lamenting vocals, an experience close to Loren Connors‘ Hell’s Kitchen Park. Irresistible sentimental spleen and “happy-sad” hymns.

This project, called Early Moon, is actually not far from what you can hear on rewild, built around shoegazing and vibrant aerial guitar moods but with more emphasis on rock elements through the presence of Andrew Eyles (bass, percussion). The result is far from being fully dedicated ambient music, yet there are hints of North Atlantic Drift in the meandering, textured, and engaging instrumental guitar sections that paint inner landscapes.

Overflowing delivers an oceanic body of shifting harmonies, melodious vibes, and cool, soft-rock resonances. Sparse textural ambient motifs punctuate the ensemble, as in the granular and free-flowing “Sunbird.” Emotionally, the music is entirely connected with hope and gentle bitterness.

Once more, whether working solo or in collaboration, Brad Deschamps does not disappoint. A delicate semi-ambient rock album of alluring reflectiveness, it is easily recommended for fans of Mono, This Will Destroy You, Pan American, Michael Rother (some passages of Sterntaler), and Seeland by Neu! (1975).

Overflowing is available on Polar Seas. [Bandcamp]