Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Clouds Imagined
Another on the Rattle Seventh House imprint of releases which fit into our Further Outwhere pages, where we place “sounds beyond songs, ideas outside the obvious, possibilities far from pop”.
Some of the musicians here will be familiar to Elsewhere/Further Outwhere readers: pianist Stephen Clothier, composer Ross Harris, Neil Johnstone (here creating the synth soundscapes), guitarist Sam Leamy, Steve Burridge (samples) and Rattle's Steve Garden who manipulated these mostly abstract and darkly atmospheric sounds.
Inspired by some lines of Edo-period Japanese poetry about the impermanence of clouds and the balance between order and chaos, the musicians here evoke that balance, often tipping into the uneasy chaos (as on the first half of the doom-laden Splintered Light) through distorted guitar and synth washes.
Here too however is an underlying sense of order and beauty, notably in the second half of Splintered Light and on the landscapes of Dark Cloud and Clouds Imagined where Clothier plays some of Harris' evocative and impressionist pieces.
For many this might be considered sound design rather than music, but be that as it may, there are passages of sometimes sublime ambience here (Floating Cloud) and the titles (there are also Fog, Scattered Clouds and Low Cloud) give a hint to some of the weightless, ominous or oppressive sonics which are here.
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You can hear and buy Collapsed Clouds at bandcamp here where there are other releases in the Rattle Seventh House imprint
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