SM040 LUPERCI – ‘Scorched Earth’ CS
A conceptual effort, Luperci’s second release on Sonic Meditations drops the listener right into cave of sound that echoes like a hive of bees and escalates into a massive sound that’s like taking all of La Monte Young’s recordings and pushing them into the red. Comprised of mainly sitar and synth, tracks presented here are saturated into fields of dense sounds with haunting melodic tendencies.
SM048 SOUNDING THE DEEP – ‘Return to the Quiet’ LP/CS
After and hand-full of limited releases on cassette, CDr and CD formats, Sounding the Deep’s fifth album has the pleasure of gracing a vinyl record. Started by David Williams, which blossomed into a trio this past year to rehearse and record compositions, unlike like previous releases, the outcome is a very mature effort. Williams stripped the music down from electric amplification to straight acoustic, adding cello, cymbals and percussion. Arranged with acoustic guitar, the accompanying musicians also lay down accents by way of light percussive rhythms with deep brooding moods. Although it may seem like a new direction, Williams keeps a steady mood in the vein of previous efforts, but retains momentum in capturing a more subtilely deep, yet brighter and playful effort. The second half of the record begins more ambient and minimal leading into a meditative rhythm that reaches back into a more melodic reprise as the album matures to the center of the ending point. This past year, Sounding the Deep has performed with Scott Kelly, Luperci, Hedia, Expo 70 and more as this strong line-up.