Godheadscope
A City Out Of Sight
7.6
A City Out of Sight is not a typical ambient drone release. Creator Matt Rosin layers both chamber music and his voice over the rumbling bass and fuzzed-out noise to create art that is as entertaining as it is unique. Maybe entertaining isn’t the best word; moving, then. This is music that moves you, and this has been an excellent soundtrack for a rainy day.
A drone release comprised of four tracks spanning 45 minutes could have one expecting the unfocused composition and tedious experimentation that often plague this genre. But, with the slight exception of the 14-minute “The Weight of Paper” which does overstay its welcome, A City Out of Sight mostly avoids these pitfalls, proving itself to be engaging despite its experimentation. As far as references go, the best I can think of for a metal audience is a chamber music version of “Akuma No Kuma” off of last year’s Sunn O))) & Boris collaboration, Altar. Take away the wild experimentation and deep low end on that release and simplify the structure and you’re close to A City Out of Sight.
“Room of Light” opens with waves of harsh noise that are given time to fade into silence upon their entrance. This pattern holds throughout the 10:31 duration of the piece, horns and vocals jarring with the ambient noise at first, and then slowly quieting down into a very real and very heavy nothingness. Around the six-minute mark Rosin’s vocals have adopted that ever-present fuzz, sounding distant and sorrowful against the fading horns and enveloping silence. It’s a simple and effective track, but as it fades for the last time, the listener is in luck because the best of this release follows, opening with a piano and a gong. “Joy/Grime” has much more going on at any given moment than its predecessor, but for all the discordant elements vying for attention, a beautiful piano-driven melody emerges over Rosin’s harmonies, seeming to imbue this track with a more traditional song structure. But then the melody passes and the gongs take center stage, as silence once again becomes the goal. “Dusk On Glass” is an instrumental, and is closer to chamber music with ambient effects than it is to ambient drone with chamber additions. Its simplicity, brooding darkness and slow ascension are stunning. That last sentence wraps up my feelings for not just this song, but for the album as a whole. Interesting, moving, and recommended.
