AS IF NO WAY · Premiere: Sailingwing – A Cottage Garden Favourite (Great Curve)

Short Story

Only a short walk into the forest from the abandoned stone cottage, the swampy marshes lie thick and oozing, slowly sucking lifeforms into their sullen depths, one after one. Animals preserved for eternity in black peaty graves.

A silvery deer tumbles into the placid moonlight and is instantly entrapped by the bog. The carbon sink claims its victims as they gaze helplessly to stars, immobilised. It is not alive yet it is always hungry. Only the plant-life and the stillness survive.

Review

‘A Cottage Garden Favourite’ is an intricate piece of Musique Concrète that portrays a spooky dissonance of icy sound design and processed samples. The track almost seems to seep through the air and consume the listener, punctuated with moments of air and space. The second half of the track brings some sustained synth chords to reassuringly envelop the chorus of samples and effects; The piece culminates with the familiar pulsing motif heard throughout, accompanied by dull screams and light percussive thuds over deep drones. For me, the piece conjures feelings of finality and impermanence, teasing a conclusive cadence before finishing abruptly.

The label, Great Curve, is a brand-new project started just this year, encompassing leftfield and experimental electronica, releasing music “[at the] intersection of home listening and IDM/experimental club sounds”; Focussing primarily on artists who perform live. The artist, Sailingwing, is a collaborative project between a couple of artists, who have also released on a compilation on MEGA METAL this year.

Pick up one of the 10”s here (limited to 20 copies).