Trapist — The Golden Years

Trapist is a 3 piece that combines the best elements of ambient post rock with some free jazz improvisation, meaning their rhythms have a bit more elasticity than the usual metric post rock repetitions.  Their quieter moments recall Larsen, but overall music has a bit more grit, and is not as minimal.  Their new album (and 3rd release) "The Golden Years" has 4 tracks, 5-15 minutes in length, all glowing with the comforting warmth of the campfire.  The cover pictures several tents in serene woods, color-treated with a fitting golden hue.

The 8 minute first track, titled "The Gun That's Hanging on the Kitchen Wall", is a great example of how these styles are combined.  It begins with a dreamy, consonant 7th chord from the guitar, repeatedly resounding.  Soon, this is offset by bubbling surges of snare, increasing in volume, and then a twisting undercurrent created by the double bass player bowing back and forth on a single very low pitch.  This sound is then enveloped by a shimmering blanket of organ drone, until at the opportune moment this freeform mass of sound thins out to a relaxed chord progression from the guitar, backed by a sparse beat from the drumset.  This riff continues for several minutes, sounding sleepier and more at rest until the drums completely drop away, and the piece ends with the same gentle repeated guitar chord that it began with.

The 2nd track is more experimental, beginning with some murky, dissonant feedback that should please listeners obsessed with the tonal qualities produced by guitar amps.  Later in the track, there are more dreamy guitar progressions to be found, but this time, the rest of the group never quite leaves free rhythm.  The drummer's swelling rolls and fills are augmented with an unusual sound that I can only guess is some kind of chain being pulled through a hole in another metal object.  The sounds dance around each other but never exactly sync up, in a hazy, lethargic pastiche that recalls an uneventful summer afternoon.

The last two tracks follow a similar template to equal success, with "Pisa", the shortest piece at 5 minutes, taking a more melancholic tone until a sort of epiphany moment in the final minute, where an understated picked guitar melody bubbles to the surface in the record's most sublime moment.  The final piece "Walk These Hills Lightly" is fittingly the quietest and longest of all.

Trapist masterfully lulls the listener into a deeply pleasurable trance state with "The Golden Years".  If slow music is not your thing, or you prefer post rock to reach intense energetic heights, you may not enjoy this, but any fan of the ambient side of post rock should find this album to be a beauty, and it may even persuade some music fans who typically find the style pretentious or narrow-minded.