CAMERON MACNAIR – TO MAKE THE BODY GLOW
This one has been waiting on my ‘to-do list’ for some time. In the past few weeks I noticed I regularly returned to this album (which is always a good sign).
Cameron MacNair is a Seattle-based composer and musician. Some of you may know his work as Carbon in Prose. He has a background in music technology and traditional instrumentation, and holds a Master of Science degree in Digital Composition and Performance from the University of Edinburgh. His work ‘often highlights juxtapositions of sound sources and texture’.
To Make The Body Glow is inspired by the concept of ‘the “Body of Light”—a notion that our bodies are formed of the same ethereal essence as the stars’, perhaps somewhat more familiar as ‘Astral Body’.
The music is ‘a metaphor of contemplations of this message, and the search for it.’
A metaphysical theme like that often indicates we’re dealing with fairly shallow new age music. But not here – this music is definitely on another level. After all, To Make The Body Glow is released on Yann Novak’s Dragon’s Eye Recording, the quality label ’emphasizing the elevation of marginalized voices in experimental music’. This is released in their digital-only series.
WIL BOLTON – SOUTH OF THE LAKE
Another album I regularly re-played (and released in January) is South Of The Lake by Wil Bolton. It is released on the Quiet Details label. Quiet Details is very actively promoting their new releases, which means that I must unfortunately say that the CD version is already sold out (which for this label is usually the case on or shortly after the release dates).
But, there’s still digital, so no reason not to mention this beautiful album.
South Of The Lake is inspired by a (spring) road trip around Honam, the southwestern region of Korea. The music radiates serene ‘moments of stillness and quiet in temples, nature reserves and a tea garden’.
Many field recordings are taken from this journey – a temple, a tea garden, a nature reserve – and create an extra layer for the music. The bright atmosphere, fresh like spring indeed, is created with singing bowls, bells, windchimes etc, that matches perfectly with their electronic counterparts (a fascinating Cocoquantus among them).
We’re nearing Spring again (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), so be sure to make South Of The Lake part of your seasonal soundtrack.
