Scott Solter, one half of Boxharp and prolific recording engineer, producer, mixer, re-mixer and musician, reissues his 2005 album ‘One River’. It has aspects of what is con temporarily described as glacial ambient, in that it is built from monolithic drone scapes that move slowly and invoke qualities of sparse almost barren climes. As a piece it comprises guitar processed to bare recognition, tape, cymbals, field recordings and manipulated voice, although it’s production qualities are so heavily present that the main instrument would have to be considered as the recording studio. Solter’s press material would have it that he is exploring the space between Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ and William Basinski’s ‘Disintegration Loops’, although comparisons to some of the output from Glacial Movements would be equally a descriptive shortcut.
‘One River’ is a seven track album which presents itself as one long unfolding with the nominal indexing for motives not quite clear. However they can be considered as movements with a whole with ‘Tarn’ opening the affair as a slow build introducing the elements and developing the recurring motifs into longer cycles. The release to the aspects of lower bass tones to accompany the higher cyclical drones occurs late in ‘Tarn’ and is a focal aspect of ‘Ghost Trains’ along with subtle field recordings of trains and a few guitar flourishes. ‘The Great Cold‘ has an eerier feel with a haunting choral sound and the drones emptied of their melodic tones to almost suggest affect less expression or barren scapes, as the intermittent samples of bird cries sparsely populate the track. ‘Antique Brothers’ slows down the pace and gives nuance to the drones creating distinct tonal variations within the cycles and eliciting a melancholic feel eventually being stripped back to a low tone and stretched minimal renditions of the cycles. ‘Wave and Sepia Wire’ moves back towards a brighter aspects of the cycles which continues through ‘Cypress Road’ building a more solemn sound bespeaking portent which culminates in ‘The Palace Wedding’ and it’s long pristine versions of the drone cycles with upwardly moving effects and gleams shining through in a positive resolve.
‘One River’ has also been made into a video ‘Twins and Wives: a film for One River’ which is to see limited edition DVD release.
Innerversitysound
