Loscil


(Copyright © 1999-2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

Triple Point (2001) , 6/10
Submers (2002) , 7/10
First Narrows (2004), 5/10
Plume (2006), 7/10
Endless Falls (2010), 6.5/10
Links:

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Vancouver-based Scott Morgan was a disciple of Brian Eno's Before And After Science. Armed with an arsenal of electronic instruments, Morgan (disguised under the moniker Loscil), penned brief instrumental vignettes. Triple Point (Kranky, 2001) sampled Morgan's first self-released album, A New Demonstration Of Thermodynamic Tendencies, inspired by thermodynamic concepts and formulas. The techno vapors of Hydrogen and Fuel Exergy, the industrial pulse of Zero, the haunting sci-fi soundscapes of Pressure, Discrete Entropy and Enthalpy recycle old ideas with modern means. Richard Bone has been doing for many years. The longer Conductivity and Absolute capture different aspects of sound, but then don't find much to do with them.

The "watery" theme of Submers (Kranky, 2002) helped Morgan craft a much more focused and creative work. The album is a stylitic tour de force that runs the gamut from the subliminal, and quasi-gothic, kosmische musik of Mute and Triton to the tribal techno of Gymnate. Argonaut whirls with the dervish-like flavor of Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air, set against a solemn undercurrent of drones a` la Brian Eno's Music For Airports. The harsh electronic pulsation of Le Plongeur loops around eerie background drones. The psychedelic quality of Resurgam and the massively tragic quality of the Kursk requiem herald an artist who has emotions besides ideas.

Scott Morgan uses real instruments on First Narrows (Kranky, 2004), but the studio processing is so intense that the difference is only one of timbres. Lucy Dub still has some repetitive patterns, sometimes reminiscent of Terry Riley's undulating structures, although somewhat indecisive and shapeless. The guitar sings the melody of Ema. The organic, amoebic evolution of Mode is spoiled by sloppy beats. Sure, Brittle has some haunting, angelic cosmic drones; and the instruments pen the ten-minute new-age impressionism of First Narrows (with a dub-like cadence and languid guitar wails) and the intense nine-minute psalm of Cloister. But, overall, this sounds like a less focused work than its predecessors, and the lo-fi beats truly annoy in the long run.

Plume (Kranky, 2006) is built out of the same principles (a synthetic sound over which live instruments improvise) but by a more sophisticated hand (and perhaps a cleverer intelligence). The vignettes (that are allowed more time to coalesce) create disturbing musical robots at the border between chaos and organization. Motoc evokes both Brian Eno's "before and after science" vignettes and Neu's "motorik" fantasies. The eight-minute Rorschach radiates drama from the dripping notes of the first minute, even before alien distortions and soft beats begin to populate its vast empty space. This second track sounds like the static counterweight to the dynamic first track. Zephyr is then a compromise between the two, as electronic rhythms percolate through the gentle dissonances but hardly unsettle the shimmering lake of tones. Bellows sounds like a study in contrast: "dirty" drones versus syncopated beats.
Live instruments are typically used to inject the human presence into an unhuman machinery. The glacial electronic winds of Steam assail a tide of piano notes in a somewhat darker atmosphere at an exhausting tempo. In a similar manner, an erratic xylophone dents the mechanistic ambience of Chinook, evoked by oscillating structures and steady beats. The most exciting puzzle of the album is Charlie, the longest track at almost nine minutes, whose instruments are blended into a swirling vibrating vortex and then projected into a droning black hole.
By comparison with these intense mini-symphonies, the relaxed eight-minute Halcyon and the aquatic resonance of Mistral are almost new-age music.
Having toned down and better integrated the beats, Morgan can sail towards the inner geography of the psyche in masterful ways that only Brian Eno at the peak of his art could concoct.

Endless Falls (Kranky, 2010) continued Plume's program of evocative psychoambient music that gently blends chamber instruments, as well as Submers' watery theme albeit set in a melancholy autumnal context; and Morgan did it with quasi-classical austerity and metaphysical gravity. Occasionally reminiscent of Harold Budd's fragile static watercolors (Shallow Water Blackout, Fern and Robin), and occasionally propelled by the faintest of rhythms (Dub for Cascadia with distant choir and thick rustling noise, and The Making of Grief Point, that blends a spoken-word lecture by Destroyer's Dan Bejar with a ghostly beat and mournful variations), the music becomes an exercise in delicate maneouvres. Morgan is especially skilled at toying with the listener's psyche. Endless Falls is a case of slowly mutating repetitive minimalism with the pathos of a romantic adagio: falling waters, an undulating organ pattern, the counterpoint of an accordion-like melody, and it all ends in gracefully dancing chords. The soothing reverbed pulsation of Estuarine becomes a nerve-wracking neurosis when the background fills up with sinister glitchy sounds and with an industrial-grade rhythm. These two pieces redeem the album from complacency and misguided detours.

The EP Strathcona Variations and the album Sketches From New Brighton (2012) continued the program of First Narrows.

Loscil's Three Chords And A Cloud Of Dust (Easy Action, 2013) is a three-disc career retrospective, starting from the 1960s.

What is unique about this music database