Katelyn Clark & Isaiah Ceccarelli — Landmarks
Landmarks is a largely glum and gloomily droning collaboration between Canadians Katelyn Clark who is an early-music specialist, and composer-improviser Isaiah Ceccarelli. The eight-track album is an often simmering and pressing affair, which will please those looking for droningly doomy church organ-led composition.
The release appears on the always-worthy Sheffield-based label Another Timbre- who cherry-pick the best in modern classical, modern composition, and improv. The CD comes presented in the labels house style white gatefold- on its front cover we have a plant/shape-based illustration from 1500 century manuscript, and on the inside gatefold a picture of one of the organs used in the album's creation
The album was recorded in December 2021 in Montreal, and it does, largely feel of the autumn/ winter months, with the tracks often hovering around you like dank and fringed forest mist. Katelyn Clark plays continuo organ & portative organ. And Isaiah Ceccarelli plays bass drum, bell plates, almglocken, continuo organ and analogue synth. The eight tracks featured here last between just over a minute and just over the twenty minutes mark.
We open with pressing organ simmer, glumly pelting drums, and grim bell plate chime of “bells” which nicely ushes us into the albums doomy sonic half-light. As we move we come “Landforms” which is a shadowy blend of slowly creepy organ notation, bleakly hovering string bay, and glum bass drifts. We have the slightly brighter flow ‘n’ ebb of “Improvisation on ¼” which opens with a more rapid and piping organ work, before slowing to mid-tone hovers and sustains. With the album playing in fine grim form with the track “Chaparral” which is all about slow tolling bell plates and crawling drums- coming off like a shadowy and organic take on crawling funeral doom.
Landmarks is a glumly worthy collaboration between Ms Clark and Mr Ceccarelli, and I do hope this is not the last I hear of this pairing- as they work well together, feeding well off each other’s gloomy sonic spirit. To buy this, and more from Another Timbre excellent back catalogue drop in here.