Sea Island

Description

The album reflects a variety of compositional approaches. Murky, densely textured sound depths are explored with subtle pulses and chimes interwoven, contrasting with composed or improvised moments of acoustic instrumentation that come to the forefront. Some tracks from Sea Island, like the album opener "Ahull," place rhythm at the center by exploring subtle polyrhythms and examining the collision between repetition and variation. While having a resolutely electronic foundation, the album also features instruments such as the vibraphone and piano, as well as layers of live musicality, improvisation, and details that emerge in the looped and layered textures of manipulated sound recordings. A diverse array of musicians appears in loscil's "ensemble," with some familiar collaborators like Jason Zumpano on Rhodes and Josh Lindstrom on vibraphone, as well as newcomers like Elaine Reynolds from Fieldhead, who adds layers of violin on "Catalina 1943," and Ashley Pitre, who contributes vocals on "Bleeding Ink." Seattle pianist Kelly Wyse, who collaborated with Loscil in 2013 on the piano-centered release Intervalo, plays on the tracks "Sea Island Murders" and "En Masse."