Lawrence English — The Rest Is My Ghost

Long before the current wave of musings on the ruinous city, before actual skyscrapers were sliding into oblivion, there were those Continental intellectuals who worried about the new metropolis as a monument to amnesia more than cultural advancement. Fast forward to the present, and ruins are again everywhere, this time around, according to sonic polymath Lawrence English, as spurious expressions of nostalgia. And like those before him, English ties this disingenuous form of remembering — nostalgia — to the past, but more importantly, to impoverished visions of the future. English gives this all a name: Acid Nostalgia. His most recent album, The Rest Is My Ghost, is a corrective and critique of the poverty of future thinking, and in typical fashion, English crafts a captivating work of abstraction and ambience filled with moments of tension and conflict, refusing easy resolution or premature release.

Broken into tweelve tracks, the album feels like a single, carefully orchestrated composition that features a cast of experimental luminaries (who better to usher in a different conception of the future). The predominant texture is one of air, escaping. On “Sodium Vapour Halo” a brief but conspicuous transition can be heard, where English’s washes melt into wayward wrangling. These audible seams help to highlight the imperfections and failures of the whole, something that English fears will be erased under the spell of Acid Nostalgia. Is The Rest Is My Ghost meant to be a secret score for those with a lived experience of the past at issue, that others can’t really “hear”? Or, is the album a model that develops its own theoretical armature, and with it, the glimpse of a new horizon?

Fans of English’s work, especially the recent Colours of the Air, will not be disappointed. You don’t have to be a believer to feel the spirit. Highly recommended!