LOSCIL レコード& CD

Review: Second time around for Scott Morgan AKA Loscil's seventh album, Coast/range/arc, which first hit record stores way back in 2011. It's an album worth revisiting - or checking for the first time, for that matter - since it offers a near perfect distillation of the ambient producer and sound artist's now trademark sound. Full of beautiful, icy and slowly unfurling compositions that tend towards the meditative, the set is notable for Morgan's seemingly innate ability to craft immersive soundscapes out of a mixture of hazy drone textures, gaseous electronic chords, soft-touch melodies, atmospheric field recordings and simmer, near cinematic musical movements. This reissue also includes the previously unheard 'Black Tusk (Descent)', a deliciously woozy piece of Biosphere-esque arctic ambience.

Review: Heavyweight ambient partnerships don't come much bigger than Lawrence English and Loscil, who pool their considerable resources into this majestic album for Kranky. If you're familiar with Loscil's shimmering, sweetly synthetic sound, you'll be very happy with the grandiose blooms of undulating colour bleeding out of 'Cyan', while English's affinity for subtlety comes to the fore on 'Aqua'. The approach for the album was centred around a century-old pipe organ at the Old Museum in Brisbane, but of course there's been a lot of work done on the original sound sources. There's no great tussle between the respective artists - their sound practices merge beautifully, rendering an essential addition to both of their considerable catalogues.