Kent Sparling has previously worked as a producer, sound engineer, mixer and built customised Serge Modular synthesisers for the likes of Ritchie Hawtin, John McEntire and Cevin Key. He currently works as a sound designer at the George Lucas’ prestigious Skywalker Sound studios and, along with Jeffrey Foster, has recorded Leaf Spring over the 6 year period between 1997 and 2003.
Recorded under the interesting concept of taking organic sounds and processing them digitally and also taking electronic sounds and feeding them through environmentally controlled systems, the whole album is focussed on the way sound can be deconstructed and manipulated into something entirely different. Added to this, the tracks on the album are actually paired, with half the tracks being reinterpretations of their twin. The resultant album produced by this experiment in sound reconstruction is one of low drones, ethereal drifting texture and subtle but effective atmosphere. Often serene, sometimes tensely cinematic but consistently haunting Leaf Spring slowly unfolds and tells its own story. The story it tells is very much decided by the listener but pieces like the creaking intensity of “Horse Latitudes” can’t help but take you to dark scary places while a track like “Pearl Rolling in an Open Palm” takes you somewhere warm and calming and “Night Lotus” is gently emotive.
Sparling and Foster produce an album that is heavy on unsettling intensity created through subtly shifting variations in sound to create the perfect atmosphere with each musical piece. A great album to get absorbed into but not something to listen to alone in the dark on a stormy night – unless it happens to be October 31st.
Leaf Spring is out now on Purling/Jicama Salad Company.
