Arcn Templ — Emanations of a New World

This very elegantly decorated, fold-out card cover, houses quite a world in its tiny confines... It contains the work of Arcn Templ - a duo from Singapore, who start from a base of quite simple, folky textures and arrangements, and build outwards.

Whilst it isn’t explicitly presented as a soundtrack or an audio poem, the liner notes make a clear link between the sounds on the cd and a mythological theme park, visited by the musicians as children. (Its called Haw Par Villa, and I recommend you investigate it. A truly deranged place!) Its tempting to credit the dreamy and innocent atmosphere of “Emanations” to this recreating of the past, with the use of memories as guides. Time colours the archaic, and recollections become incomplete or indistinct; even akin to looking through a window of frosted glass. Certain senses can dominate over others, the focus of the memory shifts from close-up to wide-angle and everywhere between; and so the evoked past can centre around the most specific detail, or the vaguest feeling: the smell of sand in a play-pit, a general sense of space…

Hence we have a largely instrumental set of tracks, all very atmospheric but tightly structured (indeed, the one point where some freedom appears to have been granted, the end of “Dread Mountain”, leaves me a little cold). There’s breezy little folk tunes, Goblin-esque soundtrack pieces and tracks which verge on being ambient; and on the one track with a vocal proper, “Four Rivers Of Melancholy”,
Arcn Templ conjure up a convincingly dark folk dirge. The duo use very small, light sounds, on the whole; with an acoustic guitar providing much of the backbone, supplemented by melodica, synths, piano, small percussion and suchlike. But these, sometimes delicate, frameworks are fleshed out with subtle and judicious underlying drones  - whether transient ones created through reverbs, or actual drones on a synth (for example); adding space, weight and gravitas. Indeed, the production of “Emanations…” adds a wealth of intelligent detail, with reverb and panning (in particular) creating events and becoming instruments in themselves. The second track, “Three Realms”, has a truly mesmerising, shifting drone; layers of vocals interacting with a synth or organ, and shimmering through the speakers.

The whole album has a somewhat understated feel to it, but one that draws the listener into a world rich in detail, colour and space. Now, go and investigate Haw Par Villa!