Lawrence English – The Rest Is My Ghost
On his latest album, Australian composer Lawrence English offers a sonic essay on memory
A sonic essay on memory, The Rest Is My Ghost defers from any climax; it offers caution and meditation, but not release. This is by careful design – this soundscape doesn’t want to be enrapturing, in any typical sense. It sits nicely with other such ambient drone works like Richard Skelton’s Ivystrung and Lowercase Noises’ This Is For Our Sins.
There is something oceanic about the whole album – organ-esque glitches on Eclosion don’t build up as much as they accumulate, like sediment on a beach. Every section seeks to immerse, like in Sodium Vapour Halo, which tumbles out without much fanfare, its mournful synth line dragged down and out in a persistent low-end churn.
Everything in the album sounds shrouded, the majority of the mix obscured and unclear (usually to good effect). Snarling Hans Zimmer-style pads growl on the title track; on One Line Sky percussion is like water droplets, rattling in the proverbial corner. Something close to a warm timbre emerges in Hack, returning for closer GhostType too, but just as wisps. Along with a church bell, these sounds gradually echo out into a misty substrate, which is what we end on: not despair, but certainly not resolution.
Listen to: Acid Nostalgia, Sodium Vapour Halo, Hack