Dawid Scumwalski
Those who follow me for noise-only reviews might be disappointed by this specific release, but hey, it's in my collection and I love it to death. I guess you could say that it's 'ambient' music, but it's so much more than that. Excellent synth pads, on a sonic backdrop made of barely recognisable field recordings, manipulated vocals, and all sorts of beautiful, atmospheric weirdness. I deeply enjoy J. Campbell's "The Cormorant" and almost every other release that came out on VAAGNER.
Following his former album ‘Heirloomʼ, which came out on E. Sagglia and Death Kneelʼs now defunct Summer Isle label in 2018, ‘The Cormorantʼ is the latest album by Australian native Jason Campbell.
After taking a year to complete, Campbell perceives ‘The Cormorantʼ as “a document of small-town Australia, concerned with the natural environment and the rugged coastline that I call home.”
The sounds of his native domain, the coastlines of New South Wales, are explored and dissected throughout the entire album, with ocean swells or conversations at the local food court are layered onto sequences of violin tremolos, detuned cymbals and delayed piano chords.
Throughout the albums run time, ‘The Cormorantʼ inhabits a distinctive sonic realm of its own, inhabited by sounds of ocean swells or conversations at the local food court, layered onto sequences of violin tremolos, detuned cymbals and delayed piano chords. The album begins with the highly vigorous ‘Emerge Againʼ, which features an accelerative volley of machine clatter and pitch shifted choruses, slowly merging into a bed of candid breaths and piano stabs. On the midway point, The album’s title track, ‘The Cormorantʼ presents itself as the albums definite, emotive underscore, while the pre-culminating reprieve ‘A Fallen Eucalyptʼ usher in the final stages of the journey.
In the end, each piece on ‘The Cormorant’ showcases a unique, riveting sonic investigation into J. Campbellʼs coastal home, yet the album is not merely about an introspective examination of one's topography, it’s the culmination of a truly sincere exploration, it’s a body of work about passion, existence and self- discovery.
PRESS:
(...) With The Cormorant being my introduction to the musical works of J. Campbell, this album has been on high rotation in recent months. An aching melancholia permeates all aspects of this album, where field records of gentle waves, floating synths, ebbing drones, and minimal static washes blend and interweave. The occasional use of sparse piano lines, violins and vocals interject a more direct melodious focus to proceedings, which generates a quite cinematic soundtrack-styled edge. More broadly, the pacing is slow and unhurried, where the compositional elements (field recordings, sparse atonal sonic clatter, melodious synth drones, and composed/processed instrumentation), are highly detailed and balanced, while the spacious widescreen production is of enveloping warmth, rather than cold detachment.
While the ambient and modern classical descriptors might be an overly dry assessment of what is sonically delivered, to this ear the overarching mood and atmosphere is strongly comparable to the dreamy ambient washes of Fennesz, as well as the more musically melancholy moments of Ben Frost’s recorded works. Yet, not wanting to be completely reductive on the basis of comparisons alone, these are mainly used to indicate the pinnacle musical level which The Cormorant inhabits. The physical edition vinyl is limited to a mere 90 copies, but also available digitally for wider distribution, particularly benefiting of an album that should be heard by a much wider audience.
Blending the natural & artificial transporting you to the "hidden terraces" both real and imagined. Do you see & hear the rainforest while someone is creates music beside you? Do you have windows open and the radio or TV turned down/up just enough so indoors and outdoors are in collaboration not competition? Are you in your own room but can clearly see (hear) a better tomorrow? Do you have strategies for being in a soul-draining box yet never feel separate from nature? Yes. Thank you, Sofie. Anthony Childs
The metal’s band revelatory new record crosses genres and styles, effortlessly combining seemingly incompatible subgenres. Bandcamp Album of the Day Apr 26, 2024
have yet to translate the song titles so the artist's intentions are somewhat of a mystery to me, but the wavering surface noise creates the theme of a dialogue between music & technology before becoming invisible to my ears. this conjures memories of listening to music as a child (long before the sterility of digital media), when i rarely took notice of the hiss & pops of records, 8-tracks, tapes, & am radio because they were a normal, necessary aspect of recorded sound. nice to be back again. Scott