(3/6/5) 005: claire rousay - sycamore skylight
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Anything that introduces itself with a stab of piano like the one at the beginning of 'sycamore skylight' has got me. If it's science or magic I'm not sure, but there's something in that sound that hits like a burst of cold wind, a thump to the stomach.
The track, which arrives towards the end of claire rousay's incredible new album sentiment, released today, feels like everything her previous sketches have been building toward. A prodigious, relentless artist, rousay has released some 40 digital collections on her Bandcamp page; a treasure trove of ambient experimental music, often as skewed and playful as it is affecting.
sentiment marks a shift though, a glittering peak that the sun catches in just the right manner for it to break-through to a wider audience. Los Campesino's described it this morning as "the first emo ambient masterpiece" and there's certainly something in that. It begins with a spoken-word sample of Theodore Cale Schafer. "It's 4pm on a Monday and I cannot stop sobbing," he says, sombrely, the light falling around him, the album's tone and vision pitched straight into the afternoon's dying light. Elsewhere, there are gentle incantations, manipulated vocals, and an unshaking feeling of lethargy that burrows its way into your stomach, your cheeks.
Intertwined with field recordings of human voices and bird noise, scuffed feet, a plane passing somewhere high above, 'sycamore skylight' is just one moment of a very special and singular piece of music, but in the grey light of this morning it lends a shoulder, finds a way through the fog to invite us into it. The atmosphere created is truly captivating, unfathomable almost, like faces in a dream. Instruments swell gently, conjured noise like something heard through a wall; a life beyond the skylight.
Listen to 'sycamore skylight' on GFP / Bandcamp
sentiment is out now, via Thrill Jockey
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