This is one of those zero-word albums made by two guys steeped in the tradition of post-rock experimental ambient, now translating it through slow fretboard rendered textures that evaporate the guitar tone to evanescent foggy residue, perfect for hazy afternoon and late night reveries.
Like steam engines of grinding sonic mist
Pan American, the ambient project of Mark K. Nelson (Labradford, Anjou), goes out for another ride with producer and Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer on their second collaborative album, Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea.
Who knew the lull of sirens could be so gentle? This is the kind of music such sirens might make, to help an unwary listener dive down into a submersive oceanic zone, where they will be freed from their earthly cares. Each track takes me down another level, closer to the submerged cathedral, closer to lost Atlantis, or some more recent structure broken down by melting ice.
This is one of those zero-word albums made by two guys steeped in the tradition of post-rock experimental ambient, now translating it through slow fretboard rendered textures that evaporate the guitar tone to evanescent foggy residue, perfect for hazy afternoon and late night reveries.
Blending deepsea aquaculture into explorative contemplation, of tarnished metal strings or resonant nylon. Lilting like knitting needles, the instrument weave together, descend, then splash back up on the rocky coastline, dissolving coarse emotions in their blurred sensibilities. These tracks are like steam engines of grinding sonic mist, spitting out their vapor over the languid waves.
Moments of discord that refract to moments of wonder ::
Glittering effects, synthesis or transformation of acoustics into electronics in miniature, give the whole album a resplendent hypnosis. Fleeting moments of fuzz toned glitch disappear under the thaw, resolve into shapeless swells. While each piece stands out as distinctive entities, they also blur together into the communion of the whole.
Pieces like “If A River Runs Through It” take the ambient abstraction and amp it up through moments of discord that refract to moments of wonder. There are interior arcs in the songs, but this song as an arc for the album. Yet the fluidity at the core of the work is conjured up with elegance, these could be shifted in order, swirled, vortexed, made to drain out in other ways or skip through patterns. “Blind to the Last of Its Kind” is a tablet of valium dissolved into these waters, tranquilizing any misgivings into the drift.
In the end what is left are crystal shards of liquid frozen music hanging in headphone or speaker space. As with so much ambient music, it’s an antidote. This is music where I can really let go, let myself get lulled in by these siren guitars, gentle effects, and top-notch productions, and drift down to a space where the surface world is so far away I am not reminded of trouble and stress.
Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea is available on Shimmy-Disc. [Bandcamp]
