Embla Quickbeam — Stones That Move And Grow
It was recorded (and composed ???) in Longman, South Downs, White Lake, Chalvington, East Sussex, Shaw Wood, Knotts Road, Todmorden, and Dyffryn Dolman, St. Tanwgs Chapel, North Wales with the following elements/ instruments: field recordings, Vlf radio, Foil, sand, crystal singing bowl, motors, imitators, Aeolian harp, wood stove, common animals, frozen lake.
The first track on the release "Visible Auras" has a runtime of just twenty-minute seconds- it offers us a quiet sounding rumble underpinned by the noise of the recording itself. This reminded me of underwater recordings of a frozen lake. So with this as a opener, I wasn't quite sure what to expect next.
The second track is "Church In The Sand", and this moves in a tonally different direction!. It starts with field recordings of small water holes- this is accompanied by an earthquake-like rumble which appears after just a few seconds, this is underpinned by singing bowls and woodstove tones. The tremor builds up inexorably and almost becomes a sound- avalanche. Amplified objects and dark drones join in and let the quake run out. The drones give the entire piece a mesmerizing theme that's held until the end.
The third track "The Sky Is Whole" leads us with a 1.15-minute loop of field recordings of ambient sounds of a forest or field- where everything seems to creep or swell. "Stones That Move And Grow", the fourth track is the eponym of the album- it begins with a sonic composition of field recordings, voices, engine noises, and static textures. Gradually, amplified objects creep in, which are subliminally accompanied by soft drones. After about six minutes the sound is reduced to just a dark theme ( reverse played ???) Cello-like sound ... Scratching noises such as warped, rusty metal doors add to the whole impression. The structure is then interrupted by a gong and slowly returns to the introductory field recordings after more than ten minutes.
"Silver Water" is a short recording with another gong-like tone of a Singin Bowl and leads us directly into the eerie background noise of the 6th piece "Remote Sense", which sounds like a more consistent continuation of the first piece "Visible Aura". Here too, field recordings and drones from Singing Bowls are gradually used. Slowly water noises push themselves into the foreground and merge with motor-like noises to pulsating, almost annoying, high-pitched effect loops. From the six-minute mark, the piece slows down and leads us back into a more pleasant sphere. This piece is my clear favorite of the album! The final piece "Manifest Tulpa" offers us once again a short, but very dark soundscape.
To anyone whose interest in blends of field records & subtle instrumental elements I hope my review has piqued your interest in this release. I can also recommend exploring the Embla Quickbeam bandcamp site too