Right now, I want to tell you how much I like Alexander Rishaug’s Shadow of Events. I want to tell you how much I enjoy his mix of hypnotic drones and found sounds. How much I enjoy his slowly building layers of deeply textured ambience, his use of pianos and organs in the mix of synthetic sounds, the fact that he actually seems to play these instruments live, that they serve as just another layer among many rather than dominating those sounds that are a little more artificial.
And I want to tell you how much I envy Rishaug’s ease at conjuring a resigned and melancholic air so easily. I want to tell you how much I admire his ability to hold back. How much I appreciate his patience; that he lets his songs unravel slowly, rather than rushing through them, and that his music is given room to breathe and to happen in its own time.
I want to tell you all these things, but I can’t. You see, Shadow of Events suffers from that rare syndrome: it’s an album that is as good as it is flawed. The very pianos and organs that add such texture and life to the songs also take away from them – they noodle around too much, refusing to settle, as if desperate to prove their “live†credentials. The achingly slow builds and gradual introductions of layers that make up Rishaug’s drones and atmospheric soundscapes oftentimes prove too subtle to hold our attention, tending to “bland out†on occasion instead. Meanwhile, these layers that at first seem so natural and organic quickly reveal their magic and their patterns to us, becoming a little formulaic. It is precisely this reason that Shadow of Events leaves you unsatisfied; it is so close to being great that it being almost great just isn’t enough.
Lach Walter
