Colours Of Air

Description

The collaboration between composers Lawrence English and Loscil is transparent, sublime, and long-awaited. Born from a conversation centered on the notion of "rich sources" as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings from a century-old pipe organ housed in the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which have been processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electroacoustic threshold dedications. The timbre of the instrument and the spatial fluctuations of the room's tone infuse the music with a dim and sacred atmosphere, like the light of a vault in a stained glass nave. They describe the album as "an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion," sifting through the sounds and hums of the organ to find the slightest nuance of radiance. The tracks are named according to the hue they suggest – from the vaporous miasma of "Yellow" to the pulsing melancholic mirage of "Violet," and the bubbling, twilight sandstorm of "Magenta." Both Loscil and English are capable of evoking atmospheres of a muted grandeur, like landscapes veiled in twilight, yet always threatening and luminous. Here, their combined powers open pathways to higher realms of deep listening and enchanting restraint, finding flickering infinities in ancient configurations of wind, brass, stone, and dust.