As soon as I heard those whirling, saturated droning layers of sound on the first track new ears new eyes, I knew that Shiverland was a release that couldn’t be ignored. Ryan Connor joins the ranks of an increasing number of sound artists whose compositions are clearly influenced/motivated by the artist’s deep-rooted connection to nature be it topography, climate, life forms, or a combination thereof. Track titles such as Lichenstone, Animalface, Mountainhead, and Airsnowtree attest to this.
The eight works comprising Shiverland take the listener deep into the territory of heavily textured ambient drones. This is not the ambient that Brian Eno wrote about in the sense of being background music that can be ignored. Shiverland demands the listener’s attention. Each piece is made up of layers of thick drones, white noise, passing melodies, and the cozy hiss of static which are begging to be culled out and heard. With so many rich details of sound rising above the droning base, there’s too much going on to for the music to be ignorable. Pervasive, warm, harmonious, and robust are good descriptors of the general ambiance here. Artists who music is aesthetically similar to Sublamp would include Tim Hecker and Michael Trommer (Sans Soleil).
Even though from the title I expected something chilly and maybe a little uncomfortable, Shiverland is quite the contrary. Listening to it is more like basking in the rays of an early summer sun and being enveloped by the soothing warmth. Those beautiful drones bring about a relaxed mood while the richly textured details caress you and keep your attention.
|
and 