The Blind Sublime is a rather unique mix of sounds. Andrew Ostler combines string and choral arrangements with sax and synthesizer on four droning tracks. The chorus employs soft chanting with mostly-wordless vocals. The sax, synth, and strings blend in the background to produce atmospherics and subtle melodic structures.
The result is spiritual, if not outright liturgical. Once can easily envision these pieces from within a Medieval church as sunlight pierces stained glass. Nonetheless, there are darker-tinged moments to the album. While the arrangements and performances are quite beautiful throughout, there is a hint of melancholy as well.
To that point, the 19-minute Meditation begins with solely being comprised of austere, monochromatic drones. It shifts and evolves as more instruments enter and retreat from the foreground. Just short of the halfway point, the chorus joins, causing understated changes in texture. Each musical gesture has a weight – a gravity of its own that pulls and shapes the piece as a whole. Meditation ends with a touch of choral polyphony before reprising the drones, but this time including voices.
The Blind Sublime was released last year on Ostler’s own Expert Sleepers label. It is now being reissued by Cold Spring.
