Loscil
Endless Falls
★★★½
Loscil hasn't been a name in ambient music that has stuck out to me really. I like a couple of his albums and I remember Submers being especially important in my journey throughout ambient soundscapes. That album was like being slowly lowered down into the Marianas Trench, feeling all the pressure build up as darkness and bubbles surround you. It has beats in it, an ambient techno form that appears to be a constant decrease in your elevation as you sink down to the deepest part of the Earth. Submers was an album that made me sit down, put my headphones on, and close my eyes. It was a world within itself and it felt right creating your own surroundings, and that's part of what made me so excited about the ambient genre. Loscil has transformed his style and message as time has gone by; about a decade after Submers was released, Endless Falls dropped down from the stormy gray clouds. There is a different theme here for sure, and I don't think it's one that requires as much focus or concentration. It fits that whole Eno phrase of ambient that's become so popular. You can pay attention to it if you want or you can let it reside in the background of your activities and either way it has about the same effect for me. Loscil brings some new techniques to the table; not necessarily new to the genre but for him personally. And it has varying degrees of success, but make for a generally memorable experience.
The title track "Endless Falls" starts gently with the sound of rain. As it progress, strings are added and it becomes a repetitive drone-like piece that recalls a certain nostalgia. Not in a very joyous way but more contemplative and somewhat empty. It's a strong opener that left me anxious for what was coming and it expanded upon my assumptions of what this album could turn into. "Estuarine" follows leading into even more uncertainty; there's almost a beat behind it along with some cool piano playing that acts in a circular motion. There's a white noise that acts as a vague background, not intrusive in any way but adds to the mystery of what lies ahead. That mystery slowly crumbles into a fine dust that surrounds you in "Shallow Water Blackout". It's a sleep song, a blissful confusing dream that sounds like a softer side of Oval's 94 Diskont and Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. And as passively as it arrives, it fades into another experiment by Loscil. "Dub for Cascadia" serves as a halfway point in the track list while also being a turning point for the pace of the album thus far. It collects the static and daydream qualities of the songs prior and adds a dub element that sounds like a rougher, more human sketch of some Basic Channel songs. This experimentation and element fits surprisingly well with what came before and what comes after and I'm happy that Loscil created an album that can incorporate exciting elements under a single theme.
"Fern and Robin" forces you into an echoing tight cave, water dripping from the stalactites above. It's a warm humid cave but comfortable to a degree. It doesn't overstay it's welcome and serves as an intermission almost until "Lake Orchard" takes over. "Lake Orchard" is the densest piece on the album and while it has an aquatic quality to it, there's more going on. I don't really like to keep comparing these songs to what's familiar to me, but I can't help myself. Basinski comes to mind but it's not all that either. The cutting in and out of strings seems to draw you even deeper inside the song, wondering how these specter musicians keep playing for no one. "Showers of Ink" is much drier than anything else, not dry as in uninteresting but dry as in the semi-aquatic or rained out theme the album seems to hold so dearly. The sonar beeping of the background transforms the song, forcing it to surround and lift up that rogue sound into the forefront. It becomes the beat, the heart monitor of the song that you depend on while everything else melts away to comfort you as you focus. It's manipulative in a way, but that only adds to the power of it.
The title track "Endless Falls" starts gently with the sound of rain. As it progress, strings are added and it becomes a repetitive drone-like piece that recalls a certain nostalgia. Not in a very joyous way but more contemplative and somewhat empty. It's a strong opener that left me anxious for what was coming and it expanded upon my assumptions of what this album could turn into. "Estuarine" follows leading into even more uncertainty; there's almost a beat behind it along with some cool piano playing that acts in a circular motion. There's a white noise that acts as a vague background, not intrusive in any way but adds to the mystery of what lies ahead. That mystery slowly crumbles into a fine dust that surrounds you in "Shallow Water Blackout". It's a sleep song, a blissful confusing dream that sounds like a softer side of Oval's 94 Diskont and Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. And as passively as it arrives, it fades into another experiment by Loscil. "Dub for Cascadia" serves as a halfway point in the track list while also being a turning point for the pace of the album thus far. It collects the static and daydream qualities of the songs prior and adds a dub element that sounds like a rougher, more human sketch of some Basic Channel songs. This experimentation and element fits surprisingly well with what came before and what comes after and I'm happy that Loscil created an album that can incorporate exciting elements under a single theme.
"Fern and Robin" forces you into an echoing tight cave, water dripping from the stalactites above. It's a warm humid cave but comfortable to a degree. It doesn't overstay it's welcome and serves as an intermission almost until "Lake Orchard" takes over. "Lake Orchard" is the densest piece on the album and while it has an aquatic quality to it, there's more going on. I don't really like to keep comparing these songs to what's familiar to me, but I can't help myself. Basinski comes to mind but it's not all that either. The cutting in and out of strings seems to draw you even deeper inside the song, wondering how these specter musicians keep playing for no one. "Showers of Ink" is much drier than anything else, not dry as in uninteresting but dry as in the semi-aquatic or rained out theme the album seems to hold so dearly. The sonar beeping of the background transforms the song, forcing it to surround and lift up that rogue sound into the forefront. It becomes the beat, the heart monitor of the song that you depend on while everything else melts away to comfort you as you focus. It's manipulative in a way, but that only adds to the power of it.
"The Making of Grief Point" is likely the most questionable song on the whole album and I think it serves multiple purposes. Besides allowing Loscil to experiment, it serves as a pretty poignant and powerful bookend to the album. The phrase that ends the spoke word; "It is done" leads to the soft rain pouring outside. I have a few issues with the album, one being the spoken word on the last track. The ramblings threw me off and almost made me forget about everything before it. And I've heard many people complain about it, and honestly if I could take it off I would. I don't care much for the content of the spoken word or the voice, but I do recognize it as an important breaking point. Hearing a voice takes you back to where you were before listening to the album. I love being able to immerse myself into an album and the environment it provides, but by giving that break I recognize how transfixed I am on the music itself. And the world I create within it. Loscil decided for me when to join his downpour, running from shelter to shelter to keep warm and dry. And he also decided when it was my time to go home.
Favorite Song: "Shallow Water Blackout"
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