For The Invisibles Hargreaves was inspired by skools of parapsychology and 20th century avant garde art to broach one of the big, esoteric questions, “is death the end and are those who passed to other side trying to make contact with us?", their journey gradually building to create huge emotive impact.
With the highly sought after predecessor, Go Straight To The Light Of All That You Love still glowing in the rearview, Tape Loop Orchestra this time opt to conure a widescreen perspective squared between the parapsychological studies of EVP, the cosmic noise noumena of Sun Ra; a mysterious book entitled The Invisibles, by an anonymous author; and the work of Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, whose final, incomplete work involved a failed, solo transatlantic crossing in a small boat, which was found, without its captain, 150 miles from the Irish coast.
Taking that all on board, The Invisibles forms a study of what lies beyond. Using a sublime production palette to gradually bloom a vast sound intended to dilate the listener’s consciousness; conflating notions of high and low brow art to open a space for intuitive reception and perception. The expansive multi-tracked production methods enable a broader, non-linear arrangement of familiar base elements, allowing them to keen away with an amorphous agenda that has long underlined Tape Loop Orchestra’s music through themes of decay and renewal, yet always previously circumscribed by their relatively rudimentary process.
Across both sides of the extended, singular piece, TLO’s exhaled strings and voices now ebb and swell with a more organic, melted meter, texture and unfathomable depth of field, creating exactly the sort of conditions required to ponder matters of such enduring artistic importance...
so explicitly emotional, overflowing with malaise. I get goosebumps throughout, particularly around 9:00 in Discovenant. Heartbreaking and Inspiring at the same time. Dark Sines / Taylor Proffitt
I always think I have enough ambient albums but then I find something too good to pass up. Just really solid, not groundbreaking or anything but well worth adding to your ambient collection alienasu
A beautifully melancholy collection of beatific, measured drones, subtle, pensive Eno-isms, surreptitious crackling ambiance and sedulously unfolding layered synths that coalesce into a staggering record of darkly tinged splendor! Long dog walks with headphones are highly recommended accompaniments to this LP! brantly
A new compilation of studio recordings and live rarities captures another side of ’90s experimentalists Gastr del Sol. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 27, 2024
Recorded after overcoming serious physical issues, joy and und radiate from every note of trumpeter Steph Richard's incredible new LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 23, 2024