Rothko — Make Space Speak
Make Space Speak is a new Ep from moody and atmospheric bass guitar-focused project Rothko. The ltd CD/ digital download takes in four tracks that utilize bass with subtle piano touches, making for a release that blurs and blends ambience, atmospheric music, & rock/doom drone.
The Rothko project began in 1997, based around UK bass player Mark Beazley. Over the years it’s shifted from being a piece three-band with Beazley being joined by a keyboardist & a percussionist, onto in more recent years a solo venture. The project released its first album in 1999- going on to put out to date fifty-five releases- taking in thirteen full-lengths, splits & EP’s, etc. I first become aware of the project back in 2019 with the release of the album Refuge For Abandoned Souls- with its varied blend of atmospheric, memorable & creative bass bound music. And while this new Ep is not as varied/ approachable as that release, it’s certainly consistent, with a more gloomily lulling feel to much of the material.
The four tracks presented here have runtimes between four and eight minutes, though mostly they hit nearer the longer length. We open with the title track, and here we find lightly purring and hovering bass tones meeting subtle and subdued piano play- all to create a feeling of drifting, slightly sad longing. The second track “Ever Dissolving Edges” finds gently rolling 'n' reverberation doom drone that’s underfed by a simmering bittersweet ambient glow. By track three “The Absence Of Absence” we find more rising and harmonically hoover vibe- with a slowly revibrating mixture of piano key hits, bass drones and the occasional rise of felt feedback simmer. With the Ep playing out with the more pronounced tolling keys meets atmospheric bass crunch and ambient blues glide of “Water Always Finds A Way”.
If you enjoy bass bound atmospheric music, that sits somewhere between ambience, atmospheric music, & rock/doom drone- then Make Space Speak will be of interest. The CD version is Ltd to just 100 copies, so I’d advise acting sooner than later- to buy direct/ find out more head by here.