“There is something haunting in this latest AirSculpture album, and there is more”
1 Widely Spaced 60:40
(CD/DDL 60:40) (V.F.)
(England School, ambient)
There is something haunting in this latest AirSculpture album. A melody! A ghostly melody built on a dull ascending structure, like a rhythm that haunts us and makes us want to hear this WIDELY SPACED again. But it's not just that! First of all, it's good to hear new material from AS. This long metamorphic track that revolves around different textures of rhythms, moods and melodies was originally composed for a visit by Adrian Beasley, John Christian and Peter Ruczynski to Philadelphia as part of the famous The Gatherings. It's the result of solo segments made by each member that were assembled in a long track of almost 61 minutes. Due to a pandemic, the project was cancelled. The English trio finally presented Widely Spaced on Chuck van Zyl's famous Star's End Radio Show.
This long track starts with a boiling sound effect that slowly turns into a pulsating electronic effects layer. The radiation beam diminishes to let cybernetic sparrows chirp and finally tonal residues over a distance of more than 3 minutes. A first rhythmic structure imposes its attraction with a suite of bass resonant pulsations to which is grafted a texture of percussive elements quite delicious for the ears. So, the percussion rattles while the bass line shakes the floor with a heavy and more sly approach. A synth draws an undulating wall in the background, leading a keyboard to throw in some chords and effects to complete this first segment of Widely Spaced that slides into an atmospheric first passage around the 9 minute mark. The various sound effects and chords join a stationary structure of a sequencer rhythm rolling over a creeping bass line. The effect is cinematically dramatic and leads into a very ethereal passage where the haze of a mellotron sets a gothic mood from which a beautiful fluty ode emerges. Tinklings join this airy chant while behind still reigns this sibylline atmosphere with a dark veil of gothic ambiance. The flute is superb here and bewitches us until we are drawn into a sound trap where Lucifer's employees work to create a Mephistophelian mood with disturbing sound effects. We slide on this territory up until a mouth where humming and buzzing breezes and chthonian voices effects until the 29 minutes limit is reached.
This long atmospheric passage comes to an end with a bouncing rhythm sequence under a synth that is still obsessed with its Luciferian texture but that detaches itself from it to let its solos sing slightly less sibylline. The rhythm structure adopts more and more that of a continuous gallop under the irredeemable charms of the solos which start to float in an atmosphere drawing more towards the mystery than the infernal. This segment having never really left the Doom landscapes falls there again some 4 minutes later, bringing us on another road of fright until the 40 minutes crossing. There where the rhythm structure awakens and wakes us up for good! AirSculpture makes the most of the talent of its 3 members by establishing a rhythm structure that grows to an up-tempo which is angrier than its introduction. The sequences resonate and form an echo which structures a permanence in this rhythm coated of mysterious mist and voices mislaid by synths which do not miss vision and which struggle to separate the roads of the Evil from the Majestic one in a fight whose only winner will be our ears. And it is at the moment when the up-tempo machine-guns our ears that this damn haunting melody clings to our ears to logically fail in a finale where the din feeds our obedience to the music of AirSculpture.
Available in both manufactured CD and download format, WIDELY SPACED is a very good CD that walks on the still hot ashes of the very solid Metal Adjacent, an E.P. released in very late 2019. Great AirSculpture!
Sylvain Lupari (January 19th, 2022) *****
Available at Airsculpture Bandcamp
Comments