Oceans of Silver and Blood – Acetate

David Sylvian provided the cover photograph for this release in the EP Series on Mark Wastell’s Confront label.

From the Confront website:

Second release in Confront’s CD EP length series.

Nifty little EP of two spooky itinerant soundscapes from Mark Wastell’s ever-surprising Confront label. On this outing, he’s joined by fellow sonic delineator Joachim Nordwall, whose own label Ideal Recordings is also responsible for some of the more striking electronic and experimental works of recent years. Nordwall’s synth, tapes, and effects are neatly supported by Wastell’s trusty tam tam and timpani, and it’s those percussive flutterings that lend an earthy connection to his partner’s alien fieldwork. The opening piece, “Eca”, immediately positions the listener in an environmental quandary, where the ‘place’ the sounds flow out of quickly transforms into something most decidedly ’non-place’, weird, hissy, gently purring, somewhat ’soft’ industrial regions where it’s difficult to gain one’s footing; the mysterious ambiance created augurs its own distinctive and strangely enveloping vertigo. Wastell’s periodic accents ratchet up the tension, under which Nordwall’s effects coalesce and shimmer. “Etat”, on the other hand, ups the latent industrial grit of its predecessor and brings Wastell’s tam tam to the fore, its well-timed thwacks banging a gong across the bow of Nordwall’s immense, ominous kosmische drone. In all, twenty-four near-perfect minutes of masterful atmospheric discharge. (Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery)

Joachim Nordwall : analogue synthesiser and effects, tape
Mark Wastell : tam tam, timpani

credits

Photograph by David Sylvian
Design by Matthew Brandi

Composed by Joachim Nordwall
Produced by Mark Wastell

Originally released September 2014 on a clear lacquer dubplate in an edition of 20 copies (Joachim Nordwall Editions, JNE3)