A couple of ambient tracks for this Sunday from Chris Hyson and Fervorvore.
Chris Hyson is first up with Spoons. Chris Hyson is a London based multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. His work has had a wide range of collaborators and a wide range of outlets. But Spoons is ambient as neo-classical. Not usually a genre that works for me. But there’s something here that packs a powerful yet subtle emotional punch.
The track is taken from a film but thankfully isn’t unduly cinematic. It works brilliantly as its own piece of music. The track’s curious title is explained by the nature of the film. It is from the due to be released soundtrack ‘Castle in the Ground’ (starring Alex Wolff, Neve Campbell, Imogen Poots, Keir Gilchrist and Tom Cullen). The plot summary is, “After the untimely death of his mother, a teenager befriends his charismatic but troubled next-door neighbor and becomes embroiled in a world of addiction and violence just as the opioid epidemic takes hold of their small town.”
The track is a swelling neo classical affair with found sound and analogue synths. It manages to evoke emotion from the start. It’s strangely affecting in the way that it manages a melancholic sadness among the held tones that rise and fall. It’s lost in the saddest of dreams, unable to escape. It is hard to imagine the film can deliver on the score. It’s that good.
Next, Fervorvore (Blaine Forrest) from Edmonton, Canada. His track is the curious Followed by Petrichor. And the music is as strange as the title. And that unsettled nature isn’t helped by his explanation that, “This song is the outro to my album about my love of music, it’s about achieving peace, either through death or artistic success.” It’s an ambient soundscape affair. Everything is kept rigorously minimal. Tones come singly or with little accompaniment. A piano tinkles in slo-mo. It turns at a glacial pace that reeks of silent despair and decay. This is how the world really ends; not with a bang but a slow gradual stop.
Album on Spotify
