There are many things hidden in these low dwelling clouds, complex tiny voices and bits of music with overlays of curved drone-like sustained tones that are overall positive and uplifting.
Ghostly long sustained tones
Dwell Time II opens into a place of extremely slow and carefully composed murky mystery tape loop experiments, ghostly long sustained tones. This could be the perfect sleep music because there are no surprises or startling interruptions, just steady drones and very slowly repeating cycles of sustained tone progressions. The journey is endless, hovering in slow motion, swaying lightly and the only goal is to enjoy the ride because the destination is constantly lingering nearby, but out of sight. The landscape is too foggy to easily summarize or otherwise make any assumptions about. There are many things hidden in these low dwelling clouds, complex tiny voices and bits of music with overlays of curved drone-like sustained tones that are overall positive and uplifting. Here the glitch constant might warble every so slightly. “Dynamics” (4:56) from deep halls in slow motion, just barely emerging from the dark I hear calling drones. Now emerging into the light, “Swapped” (3:35) with bubbles inside constantly cycling fragments, a triplet Hawaiian sunset and a slow gong sustain, eventually getting glitchy again. I can hear the twittering stars in the background, the mood is brighter and always in slow motion.
The third track, “Allusion” (5:40), is a slowly opening door, admitting long extended drone layers full of short fragments that cycle on and on, over and over, somehow the brightness is increasing. This shimmering sleepy constant is a fine delicate sound bath of lingering tones. Now “Nested” (4:53) comes ever closer, a weird warbling complexity that gradually fades in even slower motion. Sometimes these tones have more of that special glitch quality, quivering and warbling while the drones are foggy. The feeling is super sleepy, deep underwater in a huge tunnel below the cathedral, eventually there is an emerging bass mountain top glow foundation for the starfield that fades in and out slowly, sustained sparkly and a bit higher pitched, with some kind of a repeating pattern, three notes, just remember three things, and it goes on forever, just repeating into the fog over the water. I caught a strange tiny tinkling at the close.
Here is the sound of a flickering shadow of a light over the water but just under the fog, always in slow motion. “Proxy” (3:53) is glitch dominant, a swirling fog at the bottom of a soaring atmosphere that constantly emerges overhead. Soon the swirling fog appears to have some short tone cycles that take form briefly, always very slow. I hear dusty horns and there is a successful bumpy ending, eventually. Now imagine dawn with warm breezes, “On Air” (4:58) brings more altitude, and those three things again and again, always very still and dreamy. Are we walking on air or broadcasting? Low slow sustained tones of the lighter variety, nothing is focused or sharp, everything is soft and sustained, and it might sound like a flute in places. There is an atmospheric opening, growing slowly opening up until it is wide open and all the light comes in.
Like phantom boats moving in the darkness ::
Taking it down to a minor key, just a little darker, “Murmur” (4:42) begins with a slowly moving throb that eventually becomes a little more forceful. I hear something in the dark that sounds like royalty, majestic slow development as if the forms are huge clouds in the sky. My descriptions are always failing, I hear a cello fog horn, the low tone lingers and dies. The reflective and somber cathedral ambience with slow echoes extends a slow throb that eventually becomes a twangy glitch, what I mean to say is that there is a glitchy change towards the last part through to the glitchy end.
To find the ending we go to “Tampered” (5:00), where I hear a glitchy harp with a gentle hissy background, perhaps water spraying? The sunshine brings a rainbow filled foggy vista, the glow emerges while the glitchy background slides into a place somewhat deeper but never disappears. There are some clean drone tones that rise out of the fog, slow brass tones breathing back and forth. I think now there are several layers going on, the feeling is so sleepy and laid back, with that hissing fog at the beach in the dark of night. Coming from behind where we can see there on the breeze are brass drones that sway slowly, something like phantom boats moving in the darkness. This too fades into infinity.
Dwell Time II is available on Past Inside the Present. [Bandcamp]
