|
Reviews:
Jon DeRosa returned to Silber
Records with Aarktica last year, releasing a new album entitled In Sea.
This album of calm guitar ambient, drones, and a couple of songs, was subsequently
tackled by a host of guest artists, who remixed each song of the album
in turn, culminating in three alternative versions of Aarktica’s magnificent
cover of Danzig‘s “Am I Demon?”. The balance between the original and the
remix album is perfect, and as such, both deserve a place in the spotlight
here in turn.
In Sea is my introduction
to Aarktica, but it turned out to be a very pleasant one. The strength
in DeRosa’s approach to music is the combination of simplicity and refinement.
His melodies and chord waves in general have a calm, relaxing sound, appropriate
to the album title, and somewhat reminiscent of Dirk Serries‘ recent work
on 3 Second of Air and Microphonics. The mournful sounds of the opening
track set a somewhat somber (but beautiful!) tone for the start -
a version with a great animated video by Karolina Waclawiak can be seen
on youtube. However, the moods shift through the second track, and the
uplifting vocal on “Hollow Earth Theory”, which sees DeRosa introducing
a more rhythmic approach as well. The whole album stays afloat on this
subtle balance of moods and sound textures, with the central highlight
being the incredible dronework of the title track. Special mention also
goes to the aforementioned Danzig cover. The original, a pounding proto-metal
track, is transformed into a brooding and perfectly proportioned vocal
ambient track that pushes the album to new heights at the very end.
~ Evening of Light
As long as I'm on the topic
of darkwave, I ought to finally proclaim my unbridled enthusiasm for this
album from last year. Aarktica is one Jon DeRosa, who funnels a wide range
of musical influences into a lusciously hypnotic sound. How wide a range?
The album (Aarktica's sixth full-length) title is a pun on Terry Riley's
seminal Minimalism work In C, and DeRosa studied composition and Indian
classical vocal music with LaMonte Young; second track “LYMZ” is a tribute
to Young and his wife Marian Zazeela -- but the closing track is a drastic
reworking of the classic Danzig track “Am I Demon?” Richly textured drones
built from electric guitars and a pump organ that's at least 70 years old
dominate; most tracks are instrumental, which makes the occasional actual
song such “Hollow Earth Theory” stand out gloriously.
~ Steve Holtje, Culture
Clash
Just before embarking on
his recording career, Jon De Rosa lost the hearing in his right ear. Undeterred,
he took classes with the inspirational husband and wife composer/artist
team LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela to learn how to "listen differently",
to attend to the vibration within rather than in the air.
De Rosa generates almost
his sounds (and they are many and varied though generally on a strictly
gray scale) on a single instrument, the guitar, which he can really make
shimmer, plucking, strumming or stroking with a bow, then treating, delaying,
reverberating, often climbing a gentle gradient or swelling and receding
in peaks and troughs.
I would imagine that a subjective
experience of the great outdoors is the unifying theme of In Sea, capturing
ocean currents and treetops bending to the wind and cloud formations. ”Lymz”
does it by sounding like an old harmonium sighing in and out, like summer
finally submitting to fall. The growly "A Plague of Frost" could be the
deep soil contracting as it begins its long winter sleep.
As a whole the album is
powerfully evocative of a dark cloudy day, a day when the rain will not
fall because it´s too cold, but it´s too early for snow, either.
But there are also surprises along the way, like when De Rosa breaks into
longing and pleasant-enough song on ”Hollow Earth Theory”. ”Young Light”
is the ray of light of the album, shiny-faced and optimistic. And he closes
by turning Danzig´s hardrock crowdpleaser ”Am I Demon” into a magical
flight transcendent.
~ Stephen Fruitman, Sonumu
To say In Sea is ideal listening
for facing the notion of enormity, what with its epic-sized guitars and
romantic ambience, perhaps best describes the work of Aarktica. After all,
few could doubt the chilling grace that permeates, shifts and occasionally
cracks these glacial studies of tone, which in their humble build or collapse
bring to mind far-reaching horizons and barren landscapes. Yet to pontificate
any which way Aarktica should be heard comes attached with a giant asterisk
as its author, Jon DeRosa, doesn’t hear his records the way we do. Having
suffered permanent, near-total hearing loss in his right ear due to nerve
damage, DeRosa’s tale is a unique one; beginning with No Solace In Sleep,
a recording that survived aural hallucinations and painkiller-addiction,
Aarktica’s discography has been a battle for sound – first re-experiencing
it, then exploring its new parameters.
Yet when I looked up his
Myspace page, the first track I heard was ‘Seventy Jane’; a near-perfect
pop track of new-wave vocals and chiming guitar. I’ve revisited that Matchless
Years track several times since, each time finding another detail worth
hearing on my headphones, but its indie-rock swagger seemed to void DeRosa’s
painful back-story as if his hearing loss hadn’t prevented him from playing
ball with everyone else. In Sea changes that; blurring the obvious pop
hooks that sought to classify him and re-approaching his passion for tonal
studies with a veteran’s wisdom, DeRosa has delivered what is being hailed
as a return-to-form album by Aarktica fans. ‘I Am (The Ice)’ casts a frozen
establishing shot for DeRosa’s guitar-work, peppering tense, processed
strums against clouds of edgeless, warm tones. Its effect, both unnerving
and calming, sums up the widescreen vibe of In Sea as a whole, stepping
into deep layers of guitar structures that circle or swell in subtle patterns
(‘Instill’, the title track). Better yet, DeRosa has incorporated tricks
learned from his post-No Solace In Sleep shoegaze efforts, bringing bittersweet
riffs to ‘Onward!’’s encroaching heaviness and welcome, moody vocals to
album-highlight ‘Hollow Earth Theory’. While these restrained pop flourishes
are sporadic and spread-out (only two cuts feature vocals), their post-punk
feel provide enough pulse to jolt In Sea from its still-life crawl.
While Aarktica has proven
capable of competing with any shoegaze band that can hear in stereo, DeRosa’s
battle to understand sound has transformed his condition – which, in this
art, should’ve been considered a handicap – into an advantage. Finding
emotional details in minimal arrangements, In Sea is a homecoming for ambient-drone
enthusiasts… a group that no doubt finds DeRosa at the front of the pack.
~ The Skeleton Crew Quarterly
There are definite similarities
between In Sea and the Vlor album which I reviewed here a week or two back.
Similarities and some very pronounced differences, to a point where I feel
almost obliged to make a comparison between both albums; they did after
all arrive in the same package, and while both CDs share inspirations
and bookmarkings, the contrasting moods and structures differ greatly.
If Six Winged is the sound of a warm summer evening turning ever
stranger as dusk falls, In Sea has a colder, more clinical feel to much
of its twelve tracks and along with the performers already sub-zero nomenclature,
the reverse sleeve of Aarktica’s album shows a wintry and agitated coastal
landscape, the notion of the sea as a desert expressed in monochromatic
clarity.
In Sea is, for the most
part, instrumental. Of its twelve tracks only two, “Hollow Earth Theory”
and “Am I Demon?” contain a vocal. The other ten pieces, perhaps exemplified
by the title track, are ambient collisions of repetitive instrumentation
and combined echoes and harmonics. Aarktica are near-experts at creating
soundscapes of this kind, and too experienced to lose either focus or velocity.
So the pieces aren’t overlong, Aarktica appreciating that where this type
of instrumental post-rock is concerned, less is often more in terms of
track length. And no-one can accuse Jon De Rosa, the only credited member
of Aarktica, of relying too heavily on a formulaic approach to his music.
The coldly austere drift of “A Plague Of Frost” has little in common with
the tightly enmeshed guitar histrionics of the album title track, and less
again with the rhythmically verging on garage rock pulses of ‘Young Light’.
Aarktica deftly avoid repeating themselves throughout.
And the two vocal tracks
are as apposite as Jon De Rosa can attempt. “Am I Demon”, a cover of a
Glenn Danzig song from 1988, is a purposefully mournful evocation of 21
years of experimentalism, given here a noticeably sub Joy Division-ish
treatment to where I thought it only too easy to envisage Ian Curtis
barking out the lyric. De Rosa’s own composition “Hollow Earth Theory”
is the album highlight though, tuneful and agreeably uptempo and with an
incessant back-effect guitar part running under the vocal, it had me wondering
why if Aarktica has more actual songs of similar quality, then don’t we
ever get to hear them? Doubtlessly a matter for the follow-up to In Sea,
which anyone hearing the fourth track on this release might anticipate
with some degree of interest.
~ Jon Gordon, Delusions
of Adequacy
Why isn’t Jon DeRosa’s work
as Aarktica mentioned in the same breath as Stars of the Lid or Eluvium
when discussing ambient/drone music? Ever since losing hearing in his right
ear in 1999, DeRosa has succeeded in using the drifting guitar tones of
Aarktica to conjure up the underwater experience that hearing music has
become for him. While the band has gone in many directions and encompassed
many collaborators, it has remained consistent throughout what has been
a focus on beautiful, disorienting sound. In Sea sees DeRosa working solo
with just guitar and Bilhorn Telescopic Pump Organ and returning largely
to the wordless ambience of 2000’s No Solace in Sleep with stunning results.
Here DeRosa only sings twice,
on the lovely “Hollow Earth Theory” and the calm cover of Danzig’s “Am
I Demon?” that closes the album; the rest of the time, the listener is
set adrift in seemingly endless fields and sheets of gentle sound. Despite
the small selection of instruments and techniques DeRosa draws on, he proves
adept at conveying a wide range of emotions, from the optimism of “Young
Light” to the distorted regret of “When We’re Ghosts” to the calm of “LYMZ”.
To really get the subtlety
and appeal of Aarktica’s music, you have to dive into In Sea as a whole.
In a genre where so much of the music is disposable-but-pleasant wallpaper,
DeRosa deserves to stand with the aforementioned, more well-known bands.
That an album of echoing, overlapping guitar tones and peaceful organ drones
can take you on as compelling a journey as Aarktica does here is something
to be cherished. The result is so impressive it’s tempting to say that
DeRosa probably won’t top In Sea and the way it perfectly encapsulates
what’s great about his music. Even if he never does, this album is the
kind of pinnacle to be proud of.
~ Ian Mathers, PopMatters
Rarely has a musical project
been as aptly named or titled as Aarktica’s sixth full-length release –
the sounds that emerge from In Sea (and yes, the Terry Riley pun is entirely
intentional) are long, spacious things extending as far as the stereo field
of vision will go, windswept ice floe or endless ocean, with a single figure
in the middle distance the only man in view. Jon DeRosa is that man, responsible
for every drawn-out note on display, and Aarktica is his vehicle for broadcasting
his isolation to the world. Ten years ago, he suffered near-total hearing
loss in his right ear, and since then, he’s been translating the attendant
effects to tape, moments of clarity interwoven with sounds both muffled
and muzzled, aural ghosts drifting through the blurred soundscape, the
air full of circumambient tones for the painfully alone. But an album of
depressive drones, fortunately, this is not – while the longest tracks,
“A Plague of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)” and “Corpse Reviver No.
2,” are nearly unbearable in their quiet, sustained intensity, DeRosa has
learned to let select slivers of sunlight in when the mood strikes. In
fact, large chunks of In Sea, lacking in forward motion as they are, could
even be considered pretty as they rise and fall and bob up and down on
waves of phase. There’s even a couple of honest-to-godlessness songs here,
which brightens things up considerably. That one of them is a cover of
Danzig’s “Am I Demon?,” and DeRosa manages to imbue that rather silly piece
of mock-metallic morbidity with a certain non-parodic gravitas, means the
whole enterprise ends on a curiously hopeful note, a sense of renewed direction
that makes it worth catching his drift.
~ WILLIAM HAM, Dagger
The frosty electronica lounge
and ambient music of Aarktica never meant that much to me and 'In Sea'
is hardly going to overturn this prejudice. Yet Jon DeRosa, or Aarktica,
seems to have come to terms with the effects caused by the neural disease
which lead to his near deafness. Deafness being the very last one in line
of musicians' aspirations, on 'In Sea' DeRosa at least shows how to cope
with the handicap.
With climate change rearing
its ugly head, 'In Sea' gains topical importance and, on top, produces
those sounds echoing beforehand the melting and the collapse of icebergs.
Marine drone music exemplifies the wrongs and rights of how we tend to
treat our great ocean waters. In correspondence, Aarktica deals with this
subject in full fluent knowledge. Electronic beats melt, drift off and
drift away whilst the sounds lead to great mind-cinema listening.
Imagine the sound of how
you would rotate a finger around the rim of a glass. That eerie sound effect
aptly captures the unknown depths of 'In Sea'. The ringing little echoes
build the very essence of this album. Featured in prominent fashion are
the cycles of bellowing new age electronics. Much more of a pamphlet than
an actual album, 'In Sea' as a matter of fact finds the right balance between
a Big Country type of pathos and Boards of Canada nothingness.
~ Maarten Schiethart, Pennyblack
Music
Shoegaze ambient: Jon DeRosa
offers vocals (on 3 and 12 only), guitar, bass, and pump organ on these
highly relaxing, ambient tracks. My picks are less drone and gaze and offer
slightly more structure, but each of these has merit and will suit more
than few of our shows. Although he’s lost hearing in one ear, DeRosa makes
lemonade out of lemons, or peace out of chaos.
~ KFJC
The background story of Aarktica
is an impressive one, basically the project is centred around John DeRosa;
who many years ago lost his hearing in one ear, and as he got used to it,
he had to develop a new way of listening to music. Aarktica was formed
around this time. Aarktica is gentle music with layers of emotional depth
and they have a very very impressive list of influences. The list includes
Christian Death, Lungfish, Danzig, Samhain… who all use intense emotion
at the core of their work and that is the taken influence, rather than
being some cod sound alike. This is their sixth release.
I Am (the Ice) opens with
what I call ambience of the Eno school, at first I thought Godspeedyoublackemporer
but there is not that sense of pomp (by no means an insult). Aarktica’s
build ups are used over a long subtle period and the peak is not too far
removed from the beginning of tracks. LYMZ carries through with a church
organ holy ambience, this combines with drones. Hollow Earth Theory introduces
song and vocals which if anything throw the first solid comparison; Seam
. DeRosa vocal technique is delicate like Soo Young Park of Seam or Neil
Young, not weak just gentle and it works well with Aarktica’s ambience
and acoustics. These are all elements this track combines across the album.
I can imagine it being impressive if they ever power up their sound, although
that isn’t necessarily needed.
A Plague of Frost allows
a longer track length to show several shifts in ambience. This is a moody
older sense of ambience and somehow weaving that ambient technique into
the tracks where DeRosa sings song makes the album gel together very well.
It is not patchy, In Sea flows smoothly. Overall this is a strong album,
highlighting exceptional talent with a complete lack of pretence; the myspace
page has pictures of the band members hanging with Danzig. It is refreshing
to be able to put a face to the music. The Danzig cover Am I Demon is awesome;
there are no flies here, the music stands tall.
~ Zenon Gradkowski, Heathen
Harvest
Byline: Now, where am I going
to put this in my best of 2009 list?
Listening to music that
sounds like it was recorded underwater is an auditory indulgence. I am
a sucker for music that sounds like it is coming in from next door or seeping
up from the basement. There is a strange sense of everything being far
away and non-centered, like when you are coming out from anesthesia. While
I can enjoy this strange experience from time to time through headphones,
I couldn't imagine this being my only auditory connection with the world.
For Jon DeRosa, the man behind Aarktica, this is a 24-7 experience. Nerve
damage left him completely deaf in his right ear. Seems like a career ending
injury, right? Like an ACL tear in basketball. In DeRosa's case, he translated
the warped, distant sounds of hearing everything like he was underwater
into a quietly epic, droning masterpiece of layered guitar sounds. DeRosa's
drones, like a less abstract Eluvium, are centered around looped chords
and textured guitar effects that build into a quiet crescendo. In the drone
landscape, DeRosa's output is unique. DeRosa builds his icy soundscapes
around an almost pop-like song structure, eschewing the temptation to wander
aimlessly across a frozen tundra of half-baked musical ideas. This blending
of the familiar and unchartable gives way to a bottemless cavern of eerie
guitar effects and buzzing drones that float freely beneath the surface.
What is amazing about In Sea, (I don't think I have mentioned what an awesome
title that is) is that one expects a aural representation of DeRosa's braille
like interpretation of sound. Instead the fidelity is the exact opposite
of underwater music, it is clean, precise, and of course more than just
a little fractured and woozy. I was already considering this one of the
best post-rock/guitar drone albums of the year before a quick look at the
back story cemented it. Well worth dropping everything and listening to
it.
~ Tome to the Weather Machine
Aarktica is the one man band
consisting of Jon DeRosa...who, over the past few years, has developed
a small but incredibly devoted cult following. In Sea is DeRosa's sixth
full-length release. Once again, it's a total keeper. The album features
trance-like atmospheric pieces and subdued pensive soft pop tracks...each
flowing into the other like ocean currents. Although the overall sound
is markedly different, the tone here is strangely reminiscent of Brian
Eno's Another Green World. Far too obtuse and cerebral for the casual listener,
In Sea is an album that will continue to solidify Jon's superior standing
among other artists and esoteric music fans around the world. Subtle, distant,
haunting, and mesmerizing tracks include "I Am (The Ice)," "LYMZ," "In
Sea," "Instill," and a truly peculiar cover of Danzig's "Am I Demon?" TOP
PICK.
~ Babysue
the most suprising thing
about this record is not the cover of danzig’s (video below) am i demon?
it’s not the fact that the fella who made the bugger lost the hearing in
his right ear. nope. the shock-o-rama here is that with that name, the
song titles and the now standard for fans of: (gy!be, labradford, eluvium)
it’s not only an incredibly pretty fifty minutes, but it’s a rather warm
inviting melodic one too. it’s all very kranky-esque in it’s mixture of
the deconstructed and reconstructed organic sounds of strings and keys.
if i had to draw parallels, and i’m lazy so i must, it’d be the drawn out
lynchisms of stars of the lid or the beautiful fractured slo-pop of windy
& carl (who frankly never get the plaudits they deserve). yeah like
i said this’d be the time i’d usually drag out all my snowy, blizzardy,
glacial chilly wintry metaphors. but no. not today fuckers. this is more
like sinking into the warm mediterranean sea, letting the water carry you,
feeling the sun on yr face, oozing through closed eyelids, licking lapping
gently on yr brain. no doubt everybody including derosa himself would tell
me to shut my cakehole, that this shit is all epic blinding white and outerspace
cold. well to that i’ll say whatevah. hint’s of joy divisions closer, terry
riley, jangle pop on downers (i.e. low). it’s physical (my woofer is vibrating
things across the desk as i listen). it’s emotional (not hysterical as
some of this kindofthing tends to be). it goes mmmmm. as in the onomatopoeic
noise to denote a pleasurable taste experience; as in the om like transcendental
vibration that runs through the entire album. exceptional.
~ cows are just food
A splendid new album by Aarktica.
Jon DeRosa steps away from electronics to come back to his early approach:
rich and troubled arrangements of floating guitars. A marine-themed album
with – paradoxically – earthy and ochre tones. Only two tracks are sung
(including one unrecognizable Danzig cover); the rest consists in instrumentals
that are at times optimistic, but mostly dreamy. Congratulations.
~ François Couture,
Monsieur Delire
We have good news from old
friends at Silber Records. They have found one of the very few bands from
New York who can do something other than play very, quickly, very loudly,
very sulkily and very badly. This wonderously rare band is called Aarktica
and their latest thoughtful, top drawer, cinematic shoegazing has been
lovingly spooned into the grooves of a long playing record called "In The
Sea". We're particulary taken with their cover of the old Danzig track,
"Am I Demon?", something that you could and maybe should hear on their
myshite page.
~ Unpeeled
Jon DeRosa returns with the
sixth full length release of his Aarktica project, a "sea"quel of sorts
to his No Solace In Sleep (2000) debut. The title is also a reverential
pun on Terry Riley’s seminal In C, as well as a description of his auditory
hallucinations resulting from the near-total hearing loss in his right
ear caused by nerve damage that left him experiencing sound as if underwater,
or "in sea." As with those previous recordings, DeRosa relies primarily
on repetitive, contemplative minimalist drones, thus enabling him to replicate
the sonic textures of those "auditory hallucinations." Fans of sonic guitarscape
manipulators Stars of The Lid, Windy & Carl, Landing, Eno, Azusa Plane,
et. al. will identify with DeRosa’s glacial, atmospheric creations, which
ebb and flow in waves of textural dissonance.
The release is also a nod
in the direction of DeRosa’s teachers, LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela
(memorialized in the floating mood enhancer, ‘LYMZ’ that envelops the listener
in a warm sonic bath), who taught him composition and Indian classical
vocal music, as well as instilled in him the ability to "hear without ears
by relying on the physical vibrations of his instrument and vocal chords."
‘Hollow Earth Theory’ is one of only a few tracks with a more traditional
song structure, albeit one with cascading and backward guitar loops and
a soothing vocal that deserves a wider audience – someone needs to get
this on Art Garfunkle’s next solo album. And ‘A Plague of Frost (In the
Guise of Diamonds)’ is as visual as its title suggests, conjuring images
of glacial icebergs flowing across the frosted Arctic Circle or the heavenward
ascension of morning dew evaporating in the morning sun.
Too often maligned as elevator
Muzak or aural wallpaper, DeRosa’s dip into the snorecore gene pool, like
his forebears, illustrates the innumerable nuances one can coax out of
an electric guitar, turning the potential six-stringed implement of destruction
into a magic wand summoning deep-seated emotions like serenity, weightlessness
and contemplative navel gazing within the listener. The gamut of emotions
In Sea conjures, be it a tear in the eye or a smile on the lips, will vary
greatly by the listener’s current state of mind and emotional integrity.
However, it’s the ability to reach into the inner ear and depth of the
soul and speak to us on a primordial level that is In Sea’s greatest asset.
Jason DiEmilio of the aforementioned
Azusa Plane committed suicide three years ago (on the very day I write
this), partially due to his frustration over his inability to hear the
music he was composing. While DeRosa may suffer from a similar affliction
and few albums have brought me to such similar depths of despair, we can
rejoice that he has chosen to exorcise his inner demons through that music.
Perhaps that’s why he tongue-in-cheekily chose to end this fascinating
journey with a mournfully morose cover of Glenn Danzig’s ‘Am I Demon?’
~ Jeff Penczak, Terrascope
Jon DeRosa’s Aarktica project
covers ground where many have trod before, namely the use of guitar, loops,
feedback, distortion and tape manipulation to make musical atmospheres
and mood pieces. As the name suggests, the dominant aura is one of cold,
oceanic isolation. But there is more to In Sea than an hour of Arctic ambience.
DeRosa lost almost all hearing
in his right ear ten years ago, so the way he perceives sound is different
to most of us. What is obviously a severe handicap for a musician, he has
used to create sound slightly differently. Instead of stereo separation,
he concentrates on depth and distance. It’s the aural equivalent of watching
a movie without left-right panning but in 3D. A good example of this is
the opener “I Am (The Ice)” where a guitar figure of graceful serenity
dominates the foreground while the background is a tumult of crackle, feedback
and distortion.
Some tracks on the album
set moods, but don’t really develop anything with it. The best are more
adventurous or, paradoxically, more traditionally structured. The deep,
submerged drone of “A Plague of Frost” is almost free of rhythm or solidity
and the title track, with its homophonic pun of a title, recreates the
repetitive minimalism of Terry Riley.
On the other hand, some
of the stand out pieces move away completely from the realms of the ambient.
The gentle “Young Light” is upbeat, almost childlike. And the two actual
songs are real gems. “Hollow Earth Theory” (as in Jules Verne’s Journey
to the Centre of the Earth) is beautiful and delicate pop. Even better
is the closing cover of Danzig’s “I am Demon” which turns Satanic metal
into an almost folk-ish appeal for peace and rest. It’s a stunning interpretation.
In Sea has a few generic
patches, but enough passages of beauty and distinction to leave it standing
head and shoulders above most in what is becoming an ever more crowded
field.
~ Music Musings and Miscellany
While the name may sound
like a form of metal either epic or gothic, the music could not be further
removed. The brainchild of Jon DeRosa, Aarktica was formed after nerve
damage made him deaf in one ear over a decade ago. The result was the haunting
soundscapes of No Solace In Sleep, which was followed by more material
that led to elements of shoegaze and folk. But here on In Sea, DeRosa returns
to the soundscapes of his début.
The album is haunting in
a way that's both bleak and beautiful. The drones of 'I Am (The Ice)' and
'A Plague Of Frost (In The Guise Of Diamonds)' aren't so much to be listened
to, but more to be felt. They vibrate the chest but despite their monikers
leave you warmed. Where some drone music can be insufferably dull, there's
something gripping about this record, a hard to describe something that
ensnares you as much as it immerses you as each note blends into the next.
'Onward!' and 'Young Light' offer a more upbeat lesson in soundscaping,
while vocals arrive on the folksy 'Hollow Earth Theory' and the closing
cover of Danzig's 'Am I Demon?'.
Far from lively, just because
In Sea won't move you physically doesn't mean it won't move you. We've
used haunting already in this review, but there's no more apt word to describe
an album which says so much without saying much at all. With nothing used
but guitar and organ, this is nothing short of mesmerising beauty.
~ Phill May, Rock Midgets
Although 'In Sea' is the
sixth album by Jon DeRosa, I believe its the first time I hear this name.
In 1999 he became deaf at the right ear and started to re-think what he
was doing. He took classes by LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela to learn
how to hear without using your ears and started the Aarktica project. The
title 'In Sea' is of course a nod to Terry Riley's 'In C' and is mostly
an album of drones. The guitar takes the lead here, wether its played with
an e-bow, with a cello bow, plucked or chords: everything feeds to delay
and reverb machines to create that much needed endless sustain on the sounds
in order to apply for that drone tag. On a few occasions DeRosa sings,
which is nice, since it breaks the album a bit. Necessary I'd say to break
up the album a bit, since after a while, a repeat action leaps in, and
one could think: yeah, well, I heard this bit already in a slightly different
form. Either De Rosa should think about doing longer tracks or a bit more
variation, or simply make a shorter album.
~ Frans de Waard, Vital
Weekly
In Sea is Jon DeRosa’s sixth-full
length release as Aarktica. Although I haven’t been familiar with his previous
output, it’s easy to hear the maturity of his sound after only a few tunes.
Recommended if you like: Labradford, Windy & Carl, Ennio Morricone,
Eluvium, Mogwai, Seefeel, Earth, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Spacemen 3,
and in need of dreamy and suicidal music.
~ Undomondo
For nearly ten years, Jon
DeRosa has been producing music with the goal of capturing the sounds that
exist inside his head. That may be the goal for all musicians, but in DeRosa’s
case, there’s a bit more to it than that. You see, DeRosa is deaf in one
ear and as a result, has had to live with aural distortions and hallucinations
(not to mention the effects of painkillers)—all of which have served as
inspiration for his music.
Originally, his attempts
consisted of drone-oriented ambient recordings such as 2000’s No Solace
In Sleep. Subsequent albums—e.g., 2003’s Pure Tone Audiometry, 2005’s Bleeding
Light—saw DeRosa eschewing his earlier, pure ambient approach for a more
structured, song-oriented sound.
Those later recordings contained
memorable moments, but I’ve always found Aarktica’s music most affecting
and involving when DeRosa is truly immersed in his dronework, however ominous
and unsettling it might be. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I
like In Sea so much, as Aarktica’s latest finds DeRosa returning to the
noisier drones and atmospherics that first typified Aarktica.
Well… almost.
Don’t get me wrong: In Sea
ranks up there with No Solace In Sleep when it comes to atmospherics, but
they’re cleaner and more polished this time. The result, I’m sure, of both
recording in a real, honest-to-God studio (by contrast, No Solace In Sleep
was recorded in a dorm room on a dying 4-track) and DeRosa’s decade of
experience coaxing all manner of sounds from his gear.
This is best seen in the
album’s opening track, “I Am (The Ice)”, where DeRosa sets off slowly revolving
tundra drones while a band of sparkling, crystalline guitar notes arcs
high overhead. It’s a gorgeous and rather affecting piece that evokes an
Arctic sunrise as much as the most glorious moments of Flying Saucer Attack’s
career. Later, on the title track, DeRosa picks out a gentle guitar melody
then sets it adrift amidst a sea of guitar effects and noise swells—meanwhile,
the reverbed sounds of his hands sliding along the guitar strings adds
a human feel to the otherwise otherworldly music. And finally, on “When
We’re Ghosts”, DeRosa wraps the listener in tight guitar loops before lashing
out with violent, ragged bursts of noise, which results in the album’s
most gripping moments.
But even though In Sea is
a return to Aarktica’s roots, there are some surprises, most notably in
the vocals. DeRosa’s voice has always been Aarktica’s weakest element for
me: his music is strongest when he steps back and lets his atmospherics
do the singing. But DeRosa’s voice appears on two of In Sea‘s tracks, and
they turn out to be two of the album’s finest moments.
The first is “Hollow Earth
Theory”, which gets my vote for DeRosa’s best vocal performance to date:
here he sings “We will wait and we will see/If it’s right to put our faith
all/In this hollow earth theory” over building layers of guitar. It’s a
simple enough approach, and yet the song’s longing-filled lyrics and surging
melodies combine to have quite an emotional effect.
The second is a cover of
Danzig’s “Am I Demon”. At first, it seems like a joke—I think I did a double
take when I read the press release—but as DeRosa distantly sings “Am I
beast or am I human/Am I just like you?/Power seething, really reeling,
reaching out for you/Am I demon? Need to know” while surrounded by murky,
ominous tones and somber guitar lines, he achieves a sense of foreboding
that far outshines Danzig’s original version.
T.S. Eliot’s famous quote—“We
shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will
be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”—strikes
me as an appropriate description of In Sea. After ten year of sonic exploration,
In Sea is a return to where DeRosa began, the result being an album that
represents a deeper exploration and knowledge of his familiar sounds. As
such, it’s probably replaced No Solace In Sleep as my favorite Aarktica
recording—no longer can I say “I liked their earlier stuff better” in good
conscience—and I hope it sets the stage for Aarktica’s next ten years.
~ Jason Morehead, Opus
Aarktika is a minimal musical
project by Brooklyn’s Jon DeRosa, who has been joined by a fleet of musicians
from time to time. The project is over a decade in the making, having started
life on a 4-track in the dorms of New York University, and album number
two has just been released. The subtleties of the music are put as gently
in motion as a paintbrush to canvas. When notes build up and ring out,
as gradually and carefully as they do in songs like Young Light, the swell
of music is almost palpable. This is delicately crafted ambient music.
Sparseness is a key to the way songs rise and float. DeRosa conceives his
songs in mono, since he has hearing in only one ear, which means he is
influenced
by ‘audio distortions, aural hallucinations and a reliance on painkillers’.
This is guitar based emotional post-rock with reliance on riffs that gain
gravity by winding around repetitively and hypnotically like pretty but
stuck thoughts. Interesting-to-note influences include: Hood, The Chameleons,
and Low; all of which can be detected either in mood or style. There is
also a Sarah Records feel to the vocals and indie pop of Seventy Jane,
which has crisp 80s keyboards and stunningly beautiful chorus pedal guitar.
In Sea couldn’t be a more apt name for Aarktica’s new release, there’s
a holy power and sense of rise and fall with the music. The album In Sea
is out now on Silber Records, and the back catalogue is available via iTunes.
~ God is in the TV
The breadth of sound that
can be encompassed by the ‘drone’ moniker is rather large. Consider sounds
ranging from Earth and Brian Eno (at times) to Lou Reed’s Metal Machine
Music. Timbres range from sweet to rich and full, to harsh and indigestible.
It is the all encompassing nature of drone that makes it a fickle friend
in the world of music. It is easy for bands/performers to fall prey to
what I would like to call sitting-in-a-bedroom-fiddling-around-with-a-guitar-and-some-effects-and-maybe-a-keyboard-while-bored-one-night
syndrome. By this, I mean that sometimes drone albums end up sounding like
they were recorded in one night while someone was playing around with his
new effects pedal and thought he had made something cool. I understand
the desire to create music that is not reliant upon melody, time signature,
pacing, or any other traditional constructs, but I am a firm believer that
all good music has a purpose. I find this purpose to be lost in some lackluster
drone recordings that are merely experiments of sound and nothing more.
While Aarktica does not fall wholly into this category, there are elements
that seem not as refined as others. However, In Sea has many positives
that must be praised first.
Opener “I Am (The Ice)”
is a wonderful mix of strumming guitar post-rock with thick dark drones
rounding out the sound. The song has movement, but it definitely sets the
tone for the rest of the album. The listener gets a sense that this album
is going to be something along the lines of drone or ambient, but there
is the possibility for something more, as exhibited by the relatively vibrant
guitar line amidst the drone.
“Hollow Earth Theory” is
a surprising song following the opener, a rather cut and dry drone falling
pray to the ‘syndrome’ piece “Lymz.” Fairly safe chord progressions played
on the guitar introduce a vocal line that is melodic and rather pleasant.
Reversed guitar tones add a reminder that this isn’t a pop album, but overall
the sound is mellow and straightforward. In the context of the rest of
the album ,this song, while pleasant, really sticks out in a way that is
not really good or bad, it is just there.
“A Plague of Frost (In The
Guise of Diamonds)” has perhaps the opposite sound to the 'syndrome' mentioned
above. This droning piece has a definite beginning and end – the first
steps to establishing purpose. The timbres are always morphing, yet layers
add movement and life to the ongoing drone of the song. Waxing and waning
complexity solidify a more purposeful intention beyond just playing some
cool sounds on the guitar. The sound is overall robust yet minimal.
The abrupt ending of many
of these songs betrays some elements of the ‘syndrome’ mentioned above.
After an obvious effort has been put in to making a song full of rich layers
and timbres, it would be wise to finish with matching effort to finalize
and complete that idea. All too often, a song ends with what is clearly
just a decision to stop playing as a quick fade completes the track. Three
songs in a row, “Onward,” “Young Light,” and “Autumnal,” among others,
end in this way, and it leaves an unfinished emptiness to the album. Even
the slightest resolution of idea or even more drawn out, meaningful fade
would add just enough polish to solidify In Sea as a whole.
Aarktica walks a fine line
on In Sea, skirting close to the realm of inconsequential fiddling, yet
for the most part, each song accomplishes some sort of goal and justifies
its existence. Some tracks on the album shine while others leave me questioning
their reason for being included in the lineup. However, In Sea has some
excellent multi-layered and multi-textured songs that more than make up
for its minor shortcomings and complete a well rounded and continually
evolving album.
~ Greg Norte, The Silent
Ballet
This is the solo project
of Jon DeRosa and is new to the pages of Gothic Paradise. This album
is released on Silber Records and features a dozen ambient, mostly instrumental
tracks. It's a great introduction for me and probably for many listeners
and readers on Gothic Paradise, though his influences range through many
of the legendary gothic bands from Joy Division to Lycia.
The album starts out with
building ambient-structured shoegazer guitar on "I Am (The Ice)" which
builds and flows right into "LYMZ", another dreamy ambient piece that slowly
moves along and fades away. That brings us to the highlight of the album
"Hollow Earth Theory". This melancholy piece features great brooding guitar
and other ethereal elements which provide the backdrop for the somber vocals.
The music is much the same style of dreamy, subtle shoegazer ambient, but
the vocals give it a new depth and meaning, making it that much more interesting
and enjoyable. Though the music on much of the album is as dreamy or captivating,
the combination of all of these elements and the vocals help to bring it
around as a highlight on this album.
As we move on through the
remaining tracks the music ebbs and flows, sometimes slow and haunting,
but always dreamy. The cold moods of "A Plague of Frost" become lifelike
through the ambient textures, and the title tracks brings out more of the
ethereal shoegaze guitar sounds that are hauntingly beautiful. This builds
up even more on "Onward!", much in the style of the previously mentioned
vocal track "Hollow Earth Theory", but it remains ambient and dreamy, leaving
the listener to use their own imagination rather than vocals. "Young Light"
builds even more and with the uptempo guitar rhythms I kept expecting to
hear vocals, but once again the instruments bring their own life to this
piece, more subtly on "Autumnal" and down through the haunting soundscapes
of "Corpse Reviver No. 2". A bit of ambient noise sort of comes out of
nowhere on "Instill", but gradually fades into the dreamy piece "When We're
Ghosts". This latter piece is another favorite instrumental track where
the various guitars build layer upon layer into a sort of aural assault
and setting the stage for the finale to the album. This final piece is
the cover of Danzig's piece "Am I Demon?" which is the only other vocal
selection on the disc. As mentioned this is a perfect finale to this album
with it's melancholy tones and dreamy ambient soundscapes.
I think this is a great
album for fans of the softer ambient styles, for those that enjoy instrumentals
as much as vocal pieces as well as some small experimental elements. Go
out and grab it and enjoy it on those gray, rainy days.
~ Gothic Paradise
Highly recommending Aarktica
to fans of Stars of the Lid would be the quickest route to success for
both potential listeners and the band alike. In Sea is (primarily) a drone
record whose production is as good (if not better) than its compositions,
and in this style, that’s as important as anything.
In Sea’s tones are rich
and resound with pleasant reverberation. The frequencies make for the intended
blissful drift into melancholic happiness.
Now, if we’re actually comparing
Aarktica and Stars of the Lid, Aarktica is less of an enveloping drone
that is a constant bittersweet flow, instead relying more remarkably on
the decaying tones of reverberant notes, most notably of a piano.
Perhaps a more apt comparison
is to Stars of the Lid’s side project The Dead Texan, which comes to mind
mostly because of the couple tracks on In Sea that are actual songs with
veritable singing. Compared to The Dead Texan, however, the singing isn’t
something you wished would have been left off the record. With that said,
it isn’t the best element of In Sea; that it mixes the album up successfully
or detracts from its main motif are debatable. The last track is worth
mentioning here, being a cover of Danzig’s "Am I Demon?" which, although
we’ve never heard the original, is interesting enough that we’d want to,
and are sure it sounds pretty different.
Good drone records don’t
warrant lots of analysis, as their success lies on a relatively few elements
to success. Aarktica is a highly successful drone record, being one actually
played by its members, with excellent compositions, and more importantly,
excellent sound.
~ Roberto Martinelli, Maelstrom
Jon DeRosa got some fame
through his involvement in Dead Leaves Rising. When setting up his solo-project
Aarktica in the late 90s he found an outlet for his own musical ideas.
He now strikes back with a 6th full length album under the Aarktica moniker.
DeRosa invites us to visit a kind of astral soundscape style composed with
guitar, bass, pump organ and vocals. The guitar was used more as an effect
than a real instrument making the particular and ambient sound of his album.
It’s quite fascinating to hear the way his songs move from a rather quiet
and prosper style (cf. “I Am (The Ice)”, “Lymz”) to darker territories
(cf. “A Plague Of Frost (In The Guise Of Diamonds)”. Guitar and ambient
music isn’t innovative at all, but musicians like Jon DeRosa sound more
talented with this kind of experiment. We definitely can speak about experimentation,
but the way it has been conceived and worked out results in a quite coherent
and easy listening experience. A few vocals lines are injecting an extra
layer to the songs. Among the track list, I have to recommend “Young Light”
and the ultra quiet sounding “Am I Demon?” as the most noticeable pieces.
“Young Light” left me rather perplexed for the kind of ‘U2 goes ambient’-style.
“Am I Demon?” is a cover version of a Danzig-song where the original song
seems to have been considerably transposed into the Aarktica style. “In
Sea” is a noticeable release for the lovers of soundscapes and other experimental-ambient
stuff.
~ Side-Line
Twelve songs make up the
sixth album by NYC artist, Jon DeRosa, which, with its title already winking
in the direction of Terry Riley’s own fantastic In C, stokes a similar
furnace of cyclical melodies in terrain otherwise not so far removed from
the tundras previously explored by Labradford and Mogwai. Whilst a little
moodiness creeps in from time to time, most of these songs remain gently
atmospheric, with drifts of melancholy fleshing out the proceedings accordingly.
Using only guitars and a Bilhorn Telescopic Pump Organ, DeRosa weaves beautiful
textural swells together with the kind of dimly-lit corners reserved for
both contemplation and bittersweet pontifications. Occasionally, vocals
lend a rather more traditional or accessible edge to these pieces, such
as on the neatly titled ‘Hollow Earth Theory’, whilst the final cut, ‘Am
I Demon?’ is a cover of a Danzig song so tempered it sounds more like something
The Chameleons would’ve written. But, overall, the plaintive furrows express
a sense of yearning for both times lost and better things to come (due,
I’m sure, to DeRosa’s having lost his hearing in one ear a number of years
ago), plus display a versatility often missing in such music.
All told, In Sea is a fine
and solid enough entry in the post-rock canon, whether it desires to be
or not, although I can’t help but ultimately feel this approach to songwriting
usually makes it sound old and weary before its time.
~ Richard Johnson, Adverse
Effect
I had no clue how prolific
Jon DeRosa is before falling for In Sea, but in addition to his ambient
project for the under-appreciated Silber Records, he also dabbles in chamber
pop, acoustic folk and country in Flare, Dead Leaves Rising and Pale Horse
and Rider respectively. And to top it off, he’s been recording as Aarktica
for over a decade now. Slept on him in the past, but definitely made a
2010 resolution to do so no longer.
~ Ear to the Sound
What if you made a classic
record and no-one heard it? What if you made a bunch of them? At least
Jon DeRosa's 2000 debut as Aarktica, the very fine indeed No Solace in
Sleep, was relatively acclaimed. That album is certainly striking, given
that DeRosa was struggling to cope with the "underwater" experience and
auditory hallucinations brought on by the permanent, nerve damage-inflicted
loss of hearing in his right ear. Even better was his 2002 contribution
to Darla Records' Bliss Out series, ...Or You Could Just Go Through Your
Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway. Moving away from the glacial, droning guitar
ambience that's either DeRosa's specialty or cross to bear, that album
saw him embracing electronics and song structure to the same ends as his
more expressly ambient albums.
Aarktica's music has ploughed
the fertile grounds between those two poles ever since, but 2009's In Sea
(yes, a pun on Terry Riley's seminal In C; DeRosa also names a track after
his teachers LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela while we're playing inside
baseball) marks the starkest Aarktica LP since No Solace in Sleep, and
maybe the best one he's ever done.
This time it's just DeRosa,
some guitars, something called a Bilhorn Telescopic Pump Organ, and a lot
of time and space. It's amazing what he can conjure up with such basic
ingredients: "Young Light" is as surgingly optimistic as "Corpse Reviver
No. 2" is quietly mournful as "When We're Ghosts" is contorted with remorse
as "I Am (The Ice)" is majestically remote, and so on. The two vocal tracks
here should be the easiest to parse, but the closing cover of Danzig's
"Am I Demon?" transmutes a song that was, frankly, kind of silly into something
genuinely sobering in its self-examination, and the lovely "Hollow Earth
Theory" makes a narrative out of retreat, both sonic (those unwinding,
reversed guitar lines) and lyrically (it's almost entirely about withholding
judgment). Both songs are welcome additions, but they function almost as
signposts sticking out of the wintry bulk of In Sea, a little something
to help you get your bearings.
For the most part, you're
instead confronted with marvels like the eight minutes of "A Plague of
Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)," DeRosa's best approximation of what
it's like to be inside of his head. That proves to be a disorienting but
strangely peaceful place, although unlike DeRosa the listener always has
the option of turning In Sea off. As good as the graceful arc of this album's
gentler tracks are, it's a good thing that DeRosa varies things more than
he has in the past, with the shorter, punchier "Onward!" and "Young Light"
marking out territory somewhere between the brighter sides of Eluvium and
the Durutti Column. The result is both a kind of clearinghouse of what
DeRosa can do and a masterclass in why he's great. Now people just need
to start paying attention.
~ Ian Mathers, Resident
Advisor
This release from 2009 features
56 minutes of guitar ambience.
Aarktica is Jon DeRosa on
guitar, bass, pump organ, and vocals.
A variety of guitar impressions
are used to achieve a gentle ambience. Some of these sounds stand alone
with minimal embellishment, while others are conjunctive, meshing together
to form layered auralscapes.
Delicate guitar stylings
are created in which the chords cascade over each other in a waterfall
of softly glistening sound, the notes losing their individuality and forming
a fluid presence.
Sustained guitar is relegated
to form an infinite expanse of somber vapor. Or becomes processed until
the strings lose their stringed identity and flow like a sluggish fluid.
These evocations bend and sway to generate immobilized movement. Often,
mellow chords unfurl to form secondary layers that lend gentle passion
to the flow.
Sometimes the guitar achieves
an intensity that is jarring but remains languid.
The soft resonance of a
pump organ is manipulated so tenuously that its issue oozes forth in limitless
sighs. This type of mellifluous pulsation serves as a frequent environment
through which guitar stylings slither.
In two instances, a guitar
is strummed in a conventional manner, releasing vibrant chords that pull
at the heart in tandem with melancholic crooning.
In another track, a bass
supplies the source for similar (but low) resonance.
These pieces all exhibit
a rarefied harmonic substantiality as they describe sparsely melodic compositions.
Pensive moments are captured and transformed into delicate snippets of
sound which effectively pass along the original contemplative sentiment
to the listener.
~ Sonic Curiosities
a.k.a. Brooklyn's Jon DeRosa
with his 6th release--dreamy atmospheric layers of ambient/drone guitar
loops seeking hidden realities & inner sanctums. Dark glacial symphonies,
lush shimmering soundwaves, and floating shards of minimalist distortion
join for a subtle meditative immersion. Combines elements of Eno, Terry
Riley, Hood, Robin Guthrie, Sunn O))), Guitar, Phillip Glass, Flying Saucer
Attack.
~ Charlie Quaker, The Quaker
Goes Deaf
Highly recommending Aarktica
to fans of Stars of the Lid would be the quickest route to success for
both potential listeners and the band alike. In Sea is (primarily) a drone
record whose production is as good as (if not better than) its compositions,
and in this style, that’s as important as anything.
In Sea’s tones are rich
and resound with pleasant reverberation. The frequencies make for the intended
blissful drift into melancholic happiness.
Now, if we’re actually comparing
Aarktica and Stars of the Lid, Aarktica is less of an enveloping drone
that is a constant bittersweet flow, instead relying more remarkably on
the decaying tones of reverberant notes, most notably of a piano.
Perhaps a more apt comparison
is to Stars of the Lid’s side project The Dead Texan, which comes to mind
mostly because of the couple tracks on In Sea that are actual songs with
veritable singing. Compared to The Dead Texan, however, the singing isn’t
something you wished would have been left off the record. With that said,
it isn’t the best element of In Sea; that it mixes the album up successfully
or detracts from its main motif are debatable. The last track is worth
mentioning here, being a cover of Danzig’s "Am I Demon?" which, although
we’ve never heard the original, is interesting enough that we’d want to,
and are sure it sounds pretty different.
Good drone records don’t
warrant lots of analysis, as their success lies on a relatively few elements
to success. Aarktica is a highly successful drone record, being one actually
played by its members, with excellent compositions, and more importantly,
excellent sound.
~ Roberto Martinelli, Maelstrom
Zine
The key to appreciating Aarktica’s
In Sea is aptly reflected in the front cover; you either get it or you
don’t. A surrealistic picture of the sea mirrors that of its title, as
does the music, giving the album a touch of transcendental appeal. If the
first look gives the impression of an underwater experience, you aren’t
too far off the mark. It is probably the first step to understanding and
appreciating the music produced by Jon DeRosa’s auditory hallucinations,
if only on a superficial level. In Sea is to an extent a continuation of
his path to rediscovery and inner-peace, to calm the demons brought about
by the turbulence earlier in his life.
To define “In Sea” as an
album of contentious subjectivity is an extreme understatement. One who
does not understand nor appreciate experimental drone music will surely
cave in to his personal expectations and prejudices. The same goes for
Aarktica’s previous works; a first time listener easily finds himself in
a labyrinth of notes and chords, quite unable to make sense of the music
that he expects himself to, that he is supposed to. A careless listener
struggles to find the difference between the first few songs ‘I Am (The
Ice)’, and ‘LYMZ’, crucially not the dissimilarity in notes, but rather
the rhythm and purpose of the deep droning sounds of the guitar. It doesn’t
help matters that lyrics, the normal route of understanding the meaning
of a song and tuning into the frequency created by the artiste, are far
and few between in the album. Only ‘Hollow Earth Theory’ and the replaying
of Danzig’s ‘I Am Demon’ offers any semblance of words. Perhaps it is due
to this reason that ‘Hollow Earth Theory’ may be the favourite song for
most listeners, due to its almost perfect balance of lyrics and tune. Yet
that would not be doing justice to the fantastic, thought-provoking work
DeRosa and his group has done.
Perhaps the right approach
to DeRosa and his music is to close your eyes, and attempt even in its
impossibility to dissolve one’s head of all thoughts and emotions. “In
Sea” is quite unlike any mainstream or pop culture music; it does not have
a definitive thread for one to follow, so to construct a self-made, one
would be unraveling the good work of Aarktica. Every song has its own definitive
image that forms in one’s mind, a different colour in a different shape,
each due its own share of appreciation. For it is not only the notes of
the songs, but also the physical vibrations of the different chords, be
it musical or vocal, which matter. For example, the album title song ‘In
Sea’ paints the picture of a beach, the feeling of riding upon the moving
sea, with the occasional gulls in the background. The repetition becomes
more of an attempt to translate feeling into music, to bring across the
sensation of moving with the waves. The music serenades, relaxes the mind,
brings the listener to a different place… on one condition: only if you
will let it. Likewise, DeRosa may have similar sentiments, reflected in
his latest masterpiece.
~ Ho Jiaxuan, Magmug
This album of starkly beautiful
(mostly) guitar tracks is perfect for the darkest time of the year before
the sun starts it slow return. Jon DeRosa, the sole person behind this
project, lost most of his hearing in his right ear in 1999. Like other
musicians who have suffered this, he struggled to come to terms with it.
The result was his début “No Solace In Sleep” in 2000. I am familiar
with how tragic hearing loss in a musician can be; Jason Diemilio from
the Azusa Plane (a friend to many of my friends) took his own life because
of his hearing problems. This record marks the sixth release of Jon DeRosa's
career; I am glad he has stayed with us because this is stunning music.
I was only familiar with
DeRosa’s work because we both appeared on Silber Comps together. I listened
to this album for a long time before I read the press release. I slowly
formed my own opinion of the work. I knew it was about loss or mourning,
but I did not know about what. When I read it was about Jon’s hearing loss
suddenly the album became even more poignant and beautiful. The album title
“In Sea” refers to the Terry Riley masterwork “In C.”
The album opens with “I
am in Ice” sorrowful tones that move as slowly as snowdrifts across an
artic landscape. Layers of guitar build on top of each other, one never
overpowering the other. It almost sounds orchestral. It ends with washes
of reverb. "LYMZ" is a tribute to his teachers La Monte Young & Marian
Zazeela, who helped him overcome his hearing loss by teaching him to develop
new ways of hearing via sound vibrations in his instruments & vocal
chords.
“Hollow Earth Theory” is
the first track album that features Jon's vocals, which has a sweetly baritone
sound. He sings of the Hollow Earth Theory. It is one of the most anthem-ic
songs on the album. Soaring vocals and back masked guitars meld into one.
It is the “hit” of the record. “A Plauge of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)”
sends listeners back into the frigid landscape. The title track “In Sea”
reminds me of the bedroom minimalism of the early Roy Montgomery sound.
Swells of sound and backwards audio build up dense and thick but not overpowering--more
like chocolate syrup that has been left out in an unheated car overnight.
“Onward” has the feel of “Hallow” strummed Mogwai-esque guitars with soaring
tones underneath. Like the best Mogwai, it does not hammer you but waits,
and is patient, and gets you with a sucker punch. “Young Light” builds
on the energy of “Onward!,” and is even more hopeful. It is one of those
great driving tunes that might cause if you to find yourself slowly pushing
the gas pedal as you grin like an idiot as the trees and cars fly by. ”Autumnal”
seems like another shift in the record. It slows down from the previous
two tracks. No longer manic, it seems content. It takes a darker turn on
“Corpse Reviver No. 2.”
What is most surprising
about this disc is the last song which is a cover of “Danzig.” My house
mate in college LOVED Danzig, along with such bands as Type O Negative.
We did not see eye to eye musically. Anyways, it will probably shock her
to hear me say this, but I kind of dig this Danzig cover. I am not familiar
with the original work but Jon’s take on it is admirable.
This disc, while tending
slightly to the over droney and ambient, has enough variety and changes
of textures to keep things interesting. It never seems indulgent or aimless.
It also features a not too shabby pop tune “Hollow Earth Theory” and cover
by an artist that I would think that never in a million years I would appreciate,
but his take on it works.
~ Dan Cohoon, Amplitude
Equals One Over Frequency Squared
The sixth outing from Jon
DeRosa's Aarktica is another spacious and sparse record, an alternate-reality
of darkish ambience resulting from hearing loss in one ear, first surfacing
on 2000's No Solace in Sleep. On In Sea, he pays tribute to his mentors,
who taught him to rely on physical vibrations of instruments. Unlike some
previous recordings, this one is solely guitar and an antique pump organ.
DeRosa even sings on "Hollow Earth Theory," which may have been best saved
for a vocals album. An odd choice for a cover, "Am I Demon?" by Danzig,
closes the album, Aarktica style. "Onward" and "Young Light" are the centerpiece,
directing seagulls across the waters and onto distant shores.
~ Kenyon Hopkin, Advance
Copy
Aarktica is a pretty fascinating
project; formed in New York by Jon deRosa as a distraction following the
loss of hearing in one ear, it takes the notion of altered auditory perception
and makes it into an art form. An electronic, droning approach plays devil’s
advocate to a warm, guitar-based ambience, tempting the traditional sound
over into something quite other to great effect. Largely instrumental,
“In Sea” is a diverse and intimate recording, exploratory, unexpected and
rich.
You’re used to me picking
out the coldest, most terrifying cuts of ambient music, so “In Sea” will
be a different experience for all of us, as there’s nary a hint of threat
in its duration. Opener “I Am (The Ice)” is imbued with Arctic clarity,
that beautiful kind of snowflake-watching ambience, rich but with fragile,
ice-form edges, and reminiscent of the Permafrost release I reviewed back
towards the beginning of the year. “LYMZ” has a more burning tone, with
droning steps leading into a clinical unknown. “Hollow Earth Theory” is
the only original track featuring vocals, which, with the dominant guitar,
burst through the consciousness after the lulling effect of the preceding
compositions, drawing the listener’s attention to the fact that there’s
more to Aarktica than glacial calm.
“A Plague of Frost” is majestically
slow and distant, playing out subtle stretchings of drones and sounds,
whilst the title track brings strumming guitars back to the foreground,
interlacing with the shapes that inhabit the distortion, repetitive yet
dreamy and somehow lovely. “Autumnal” is a stand-out track, perfectly titled
with its warm acoustic work, whilst “When We’re Ghosts” is more dramatic,
with echoing guitar building up momentum until crashing chords shatter
the impetus, and the thread breaks down into a looping swirl. “Am I Demon?”
is DeRosa’s own by merit of his creative re-imagining of how it should
go, and his velvety vocal.
“In Sea” moves between different
feelings, but with no hurry. It’s constructed with the lightest of touches,
but manages to move you on a deep, resonant level; today I find it blissful
and relaxing but there are dark, blue spaces between sounds in which to
feel melancholy as well. Although the tracks are easily followed, they’re
never exactly linear, with more than one ‘thread’ of sound always working
just nearly in tandem with others. A very different listening experience
for you all, and something of a treasure.
~ Ellen Simpson, Hierophant
Nox
Intelligent dreamwave ambientalia—slow,
fog-beshrouded, creeping—suffuses and dominates Aarktika's sixth long-form
release In Sea, the title an ironic homage to Terry Riley, one of the prime
fathers of modern music (a thematic extended in LYMZ, named after Lamont
Young & Marian Zazeela, Jon DeRosa's [Aarktika's] teachers), but that
mode is just one of several kindred. Hollow, for instance, is a combination
of Sensation's Fix, Sigur Ros, and mellowsided Bond Berglund.
DeRosa sits within one of
the sub-groups in the mode, a klatsch of player-composers heavily favoring
processed guitar rather than keyboards but coming up with essentially the
same sound. Though that might sound limiting—after all, only six strings,
right?—it's actually expansive, as, within this group's output, one can
detect patches, sounds, and timbres only otherwise available through a
Jupiter 6 synth, an instrument devilishly difficult to lay hands on but
popular for its pan pots, rather than increment/decrement clickers, and
various other features. Whether such musicians choose guitar over keyboards
for that reason is up for grabs, but there are other motives as well: envelope
advantages (distinctive attack, etc.), tighter control (fingers controlling
strings on the fretboard), and other strategies. These things matter in
such musics.
The title cut serves as
a good center. Spooky, Enoidal (On Land), billowing with gestural swaths
and slow splashes, it layers a cinematic painting of mutable shapes, hallucinogenic
incidents, repeating patterns, and slowly rising energies. Onward!, on
the other hand, defaults back to strums and fingerpicking atop the washes
and echoes, leading into the more insistent Young Light. Everything, however,
revolves around drones and inchingly progressive rondos nearly frozen.
A work of superior discretion, In Sea re-proves Martha Graham's Rule of
One rather nicely.
~ Mark S. Tucker, FAME
Jon DeRosa's early '00s approach
to minimalist drone was appropriately icy, given the name of his decade
spanning project. "I Am (The Ice)" and "LYMZ," the two tracks that introduce
this sixth full-length, return to this core glacial drift with undertones
of pipe organ dressed with glittering pinpoints of guitar. On Matchless
Years (his 2007 release on Darla), DeRosa had turned towards songs and
a familiar early '90s fuzz/reverb sound that swamped mid-'00s rock. Here,
the songs, like "Hollow Earth Theory," with its simple loops and repeated
lyrics, stay within a bubble of austerity. The album succeeds in doing
quite a bit with its restricted approach, moving from portentous darkness
("A Plague of Frost") to bravura reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky ("Young
Light"). Doom clutches the last rays of the album with "Corpse Reviver
No. 2," a track that would please Erik Skodvin, and there's even a bone-dry
cover of Danzig's "Am I Demon?"
~ Eric Hill, Exclaim
Aarktica = ambient galaxy-surfing
+ strong pop melody + in-the-moment drone. Here the emphasis is on the
latter, but don't overlook the former, either. We’re floating, unmoored.
Right away there’s an unmistakable mood: flickering tones with ominous
chords beneath. “I Am (The Ice)” is the song title, signifying the ways
this album is both personal statement and abstract landscape painting.
If “I Am (The Ice)” is the sound of glaciers, spectacular and haunting,
"Lymz" goes deeper inside, building a static fog of feeling.
We’re lumbering about in
the same territory throughout. “A Plague of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)”
quietly emulates an isolated mood, as tones shift subtly. The title track
"In Sea" (a play, I gather, on Terry Riley's classic "In C") is similar
but spiky. A guitar string scratching noise becomes the cry of whales or
the cutting of frozen water. There’s also occasionally a pop song with
the same mood, one that lingers on gorgeously, like “Hollow Earth Theory”,
which reminds me of the second Aarktica album, ...Or You Could Just Go
Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway.
“Onward!” has a great melody
that quietly progresses. “Young Light” is the catchiest pop song of the
album, and instrumental. It represents the hopeful side of an album that
gets more forceful as it goes. Even a track as downcast as “Corpse Reviver
No 2” carries a sense of resolution and anticipation. “When We’re Ghosts”
gets a sense of doom from electric-guitar noise bursts, the perfect lead-in
to the last track, a cover of Danzig’s “Am I Demon?” which feels both like
an exit and a headstrong statement of intent. Beautiful and breathtaking,
start to finish.
~ Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds
The latest disc from NYC's
Aarktica, In Sea showcases a band fully in mastery of a genre. The slow
but beautiful ambient sound collages create an atmosphere over which a
willing mind may set itself adrift. Aarktica could be the heir apparent
to a style of music once championed by Brian Eno and later by bands like
Black Tape for a Blue Girl from the Projekt label.
I listened to In Sea recently
while driving on a pre-dawn Midwest winter morning. The crystalline sounds
coming from the car stereo blended seamlessly with the icy road, frozen
fields and leaden skies that revealed themselves as I passed. As the cold
sun rose, I felt as though all of life was being washed over by eternal
winter. Quite an effect, I assure you. Rarely have I found a band so perfectly
named.
Aarktica, since inception
in 1998, has primarily been a solo project of multi-instrumentalist Jon
De Rosa. Other releases include No Solace in Sleep (1998), the wonderfully
titled Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway,
Bliss Out v.18 (2002), Pure Tone Audiometry (2003), and Bleeding Light
(2005). It is worth noting that De Rosa began the Aarktica project as a
distraction from other musical interests after suffering permanent loss
of hearing in one ear. Perhaps because of this, there exists in much of
Aarktica's music a humanity I find missing from the output of most ambient
artists.
Like the other Aarktica
releases, In Sea is for the most part an instrumental affair. De Rosa seems
quite comfortable letting the wonderfully crafted soundscapes do the talking
for him. Although he displays a fine voice and knack for vocal melody,
the lone vocal on 'Hollow Earth Theory' makes this one song seem rather
out of its element. But just when you think you've got Aarktica figured
out, De Rosa manages to trot out an amazing version of Danzig's 'Am I Demon?'
as the closer for In Sea. The cold, unforgiving permafrost of Aarktica
transforms the song into a beautiful and chilling coda for what is really
a sterling effort.
~ Tim Ferguson, Bad Acid
Questa musica è un
metronomo brillante. Jon DeRosa muove gli strumenti con innegabile maestria.
Ascoltando questo splendido disco mi viene da pensare, e di conseguenza
scrivere, che queste composizioni non sono per tutti. Sì, insomma
facciamo lo snob ma queste sonorità non devono (e non possono) essere
ascoltate da tutti. Sono troppe belle ed impegnative per essere assimilate
pienamente da un pubblico distratto. Non sono canzoncine da canticchiare
la mattina appena svegli. Sono composizioni strazianti che lacerano il
cuore e la mente, bisogna avere una profonda umiltà e sensibilità
per saperle capire a fondo. La prova è la bellezza infinita di "Hollow
Earth Theory", ballata soffusa che sprofonda nel mare più nero.
Una bellezza accecante che può colpire duramente l'ascoltatore.
Ecco perchè scrivevo che "In Sea" non è adatto a tutti, si
potrebbe venire sconvolti da tutto questo magma incandescente. Da prendere
assolutamente con le molle, e se poi riuscite a goderne tanto meglio.
~ Claudio Baroni, Musica
Avec Matchless Years, son
précédent album, Aarktica n’avait pas vraiment convaincu,
tout au plus suscité l’étonnement. Dix ans après ses
débuts, Jon DeRosa y endossait des atours résolument plus
colorés, une parure presque pop, qui lui donnait une silhouette
certes agréable mais bien moins troublante que celle de ses jeunes
années. C’est donc presque un soulagement d’entamer In Sea avec
« I Am (The Ice) » dont les sonorités renouent totalement
avec cette mélancolie ralentie, tout en nappes envoûtantes
et en échos de guitares tourbillonnants, à laquelle on avait
jadis succombé. De nouveau seul aux commandes, l’Américain
en profite pour abandonner les arrangements parfois inopportuns de son
précédent opus, et enfante une oeuvre aux allures de retour
aux sources, mise en abîme de sa propre musique intérieure.
Quoi de plus naturel quand on connaît la genèse du projet,
puisque c’est au moment où DeRosa perdait l’usage d’une partie de
son audition, qu’il se jetait à corps perdu dans Aarktica, comme
s’il cherchait à communiquer au monde extérieur, sa perception
altérée de l’univers sonore. Bien souvent instrumentales
– mais pas exclusivement – ses créations restent trop méconnues,
alors qu’elles mériteraient d’être citées comme des
références du genre, au même titre que celles de Labradford
(à l’écoute d’un titre comme « Corpse Reviver No2 »,
on ne peut s’empêcher de penser à l’austérité
fascinante de leur Stable Reference), Stars Of The Lid ou Windy & Carl.
Mais avec ses lumineuses lignes de guitare en apesanteur façon Robin
Guthrie, In Sea s’inscrit aussi dans cette tradition douce-amère,
que célébraient les premiers Piano Magic ou plus récemment,
les disques de July Skies. Son manteau brumeux d’orgue (« LYMZ »
ou « A Plague of Frost ») rappelle d’autres pensionnaires du
label Silber (Northern Valentine), signe que le retour d’Aarktica au sein
du giron new-yorkais n’a rien d’incongru, et installe bien plus encore
le groupe comme influence notoire d’une partie de cette scène contemplative.
Et si DeRosa soigne ses ambiances, il sait aussi mettre en valeur son agréable
timbre vocal : « Hollow Earth Theory » (qui ravive les effets
de pistes passées à l’envers datant de l’excellent Pure Tone
Audiometry) ou l’incroyable reprise du « Am I Demon ? » de
Danzig (à la teinte bien plus inquiétante que l’originale)
donnent alors une dimension plus humaine à ses fresques sonores
languides. In Sea est un glacier à la dérive, calme et majestueux,
massif et fragile à la fois.
~ Arnaud Lemoine, Noise
A mix of indie rock and post
rock, that's what Aarktica offers you on its sixth album In Sea. Since
2000 this band, that revolves around Jon DeRosa, delivers music with a
high degree of ambience and picturesque quality. Call it post-modern or
avant-garde, Aarktica has a sense of classical experimentalism. Vocals
play a modest role on In Sea (only two songs contains lyrics), the emphasis
is on delicate instrumental textures. Brittle, dreamy guitar play forms
the basis of the tracks on In Sea. It comes forward as drone music on "I
am (the ice)", "In sea", "Corpse reviver no.2", "Instill" and "A plague
of frost (in the guise of diamonds)". On "LYMC" a pump organ is brought
in for extra effect. "When we're ghosts", "Onward!", "Young light" and,
to a lesser extend, "Autumnal" bring in more melodic variations. "Hollow
earth theory" is a piece of psychedelic indie rock and the closing track
is a placid cover of "Am I demon?", a 1988 song by the blues rock/metal
band Danzig.
~ Gothtronic
I non molti che si fossero
imbattuti nei precedenti lavori realizzati, nella sua decennale attività
sotto l'alias Aarktica, dal newyorkese John DeRosa forse già conoscono
l'aneddoto preliminare al suo avvicinamento a una creazione artistica incentrata
su toni, onde e oscillazioni collocate in un territorio liminare tra vista
e udito. La peculiare sinestesia della musica di DeRosa deriva infatti
dall'improvvisa sordità che nel 1999 lo ha colpito all'orecchio
destro: da allora DeRosa ha pubblicato cinque album nei quali, con il saltuario
ausilio di vari collaboratori, ha sviluppato un proprio percorso a cavallo
tra drone ambientali, pop atmosferico e sporadiche incursioni in affini
territori wave-shoegaze.
Nonostante la sigla Aarktica
si sia quasi sempre associata a opere di buona qualità (da ricordare
in particolare il primo album "No Solace In Sleep" e il successivo Ep "Morning
One"), per uno di quegli strani casi che spesso capitano in ambiti musicali
sotterranei, non è mai assurta a un livello di considerazione paragonabile,
ad esempio, a quello degli Stars Of The Lid o di Windy & Carl.
Nelle loro varie sfumature,
infatti, i dischi di DeRosa non sono poi stati mai molto distanti dalle
sonorità di casa Kranky, alle quali con il suo sesto "In Sea" si
riaccosta con decisione, dopo le non del tutto convincenti divagazioni
in chiave sintetica del precedente "Matchless Years".
DeRosa ritrova qui l'essenza
più pura e personale della sua ispirazione, attraverso l'utilizzo
soltanto delle chitarre e del suo antico organo a pompa Bilhorn, più
che sufficienti, tuttavia, ad offrire un saggio ad ampio spettro di glaciali
sinfonie ambientali, schegge di canzoni dal sapore sognante e inafferrabili
ondulazioni, che traducono in maniera compiuta la tematica "liquida" concettualmente
sottesa al lavoro.
Nel corso dei cinquantasei
minuti di "In Sea", drone di organo si fondono con toni e riverberi chitarristici
policromi, in una serie di combinazioni ben più ricche di quanto
la semplice strumentazione utilizzata potrebbe lasciare presagire. Dalle
solenni dilatazioni percorse da distorsioni circolari dell'iniziale "I
Am (The Ice)" alle calde tonalità di "Onward" e "Young Light", fino
alla tenebrosa uniformità di "Autumnal" e "Instill", DeRosa passa
in rassegna le diverse sfumature di una musica al tempo stesso incantata
come il ghiaccio e in incessante movimento tra correnti di modulazioni
e distorsioni, ora esili ora decisamente più concrete. La persistenza
impalpabile della concezione di musica ambientale dell'artista newyorkese
trova poi sublimazione nell'omaggio a LaMonte Young e Marian Zazeela (suoi
maestri nei tempi immediatamente successivi alla sua menomazione fisica)
di "LYMZ" e nella lunga elegia "A Plague Of Frost (In The Guise Of Diamonds)",
frutto, al pari di "Corpse Reviver No. 2", di una tecnica casalinga di
registrazione in bassa fedeltà a velocità doppia rispetto
a quella di esecuzione (tecnica già presente nei dischi di Aarktica
fin dal primo "No Solace In Sleep").
In parallelo con gli aspetti
più dilatati e sperimentali del lavoro, non implicano tuttavia la
rinuncia da parte di DeRosa alla sua vena melodica, riscontrabile anche
in gran parte dei brani strumentali ed espressa in due vere e proprie canzoni
- "Hollow Earth Theory" e la delicatissima cover dei Danzig "Am I Demon"
- nelle quali si manifestano altresì compiutamente pennellate oscure
e dense di sentori shoegaze, rielaborati al tempo del digitale.
È questa versatilità,
peraltro comune a quasi tutti i dischi di Aarktica, a fare di "In Sea"
un album dalle tante sfaccettature, che descrive con raffinato sguardo
da regista onde ghiacciate, reali e figurate, avvolte in tiepido bozzolo
sonoro di espansa e multiforme intensità.
~ Raffaello Russo, Onda
Rock
Correva l'anno 1998 quando
Jon DeRosa imbracciava la chitarra ed iniziava a scrivere e registrare
i primi brani a nome Aarktica. Sfortuna vuole che proprio in quel periodo
Jon abbia perso completamente l'udito ad un orecchio, situazione che lo
costringe in qualche modo a dover re-imparare ad ascoltare la musica, le
voci, i suoni. Questa particolare interpretazione del mondo dei suoni,
ha indubbiamente condizionato il suo modo di vivere la musica, creando
una serie di coincidenze e di incastri che negli anni si sono sviluppati
album dopo album fino ad arrivare a questa sesta produzione 'In Sea' edita
dall'americana Silber records. L'album si muove per la quasi totalità,
nei meandri nebbiosi e ipnoticamente confortevoli dell'ambient e della
drone music fatta eccezione per due brani che vedono DeRosa alla prova
vocale, il risultato è ottimo sopratutto per la rivisitazione dello
storico 'Am I Demon' dei Danzig. Nel complesso l'album è molto piacevole,
rilassante ed il suono globale risulta estremamente potente e curato, in
alcuni casi si avvertono echi di post-rock mentre il mantra suggestivo
creato dai reverse di chitarra muta la sua forma in continuazione producendosi
in sfumature che riportano ad alcuni lavori di Eno.
~ Ultrasonica
Už svým názvem
evokuje projekt Jona DeRosy nekone?né zamrzlé scenérie,
které hudba Aarktika velmi v?rn?p?ipomíná. Drone ambient
tohoto personáln? prom?nlivého sdružení má
hladiv?jší konotace, které nepo?ítají s rytmy,
o to víc si vyhrají s dozvuky desítek kytarových
vazeb, které poletují rozsáhle na?rtnutým prostorem.
Aarktika je i na novém albu In Sea stále svá, kombinuje
zpívané shoegaze ukolébavky s nekone?nými statickými
instrumentálkami, které mohou p?ipomenout nap?íklad
Stars Of The Lid nebo Sunn O))).
~ Pavel Zelinka, Radio Wave
“In Sea” e’ il sesto full
lenght per Aarktica, il progetto creato da Jon DeRosa e all’attivo da quasi
dieci anni, un album composto da mille sfumature musicali che compongono
un quadro ricco di atmosfere e sonorita’ molto particolari.
La musica di DeRosa fa ricordare
a tratti le colonne sonore di Morricone e le atmosfere Ambient del nord
Europa , le influenze che si sentono nell’album sono davvero tante e svariate
ma la cosa che piu’ spicca e’ la ricerca di suoni che caratterizzino determinate
sensazioni come nella opening track “I Am (The Ice)”, che trasporta la
mente nei freddi ghiacciai del nord cristallini e puri; sensazione che
si prova anche nella track che da il nome all’album “In Sea” dove vi si
sentono anche degli accenni che ricordano i rumori dell’oceano. Particolare
la cover di Danzig “Am I Demon”, le note leggere di chitarra sono delicate
accompagnate da suoni e voce che danno un mood rilassante, in quanto si
distanzia davvero parecchio dalla versione originale del pezzo, affrontata
un po’ come viaggio spirituale. Molto interessante anche “Hollow Earth
Theory” dove possiamo sentire per la seconda volta la voce sempre molto
delicata e rilassante di DeRosa.
Nel totale e’ un album prettamente
Ambient e le melodie sono molto rilassanti e leggere senza comunque cadere
nel monotono. Per chi non conosce questo genere puo’ essere una buona scoperta
(in mezzo a tutto il caos della solita musica elettronica odierna un po’
di atmosfera rilassante fa piacere!) il consiglio e' di ascoltarlo con
calma e lasciarsi trasportare da questo viaggio emozionale.
~ Alone Music
1. Los discos de Aarktica,
junto a los de Stars of the Lid y Eluvium, son de lo que más me
gusta en la música ambient de esta década. Prefería
sus primeros álbumes, porque del más reciente me entusiasmaban
ciertos tracks, no el disco completo, impersonal y distante incluso para
un proyecto cuyo nombre evoca páramos helados. Por eso me alegra
escuchar ahora In Sea, el LP que Aarktica estrenó este otoño,
de los más equilibrados de su carrera y el que mejor destila la
experiencia acumulada.
Me pasó como cuando
ves una película y juras que algo es CGI, luego ves el "detrás
de cámaras" y descubres que no era el caso. Imaginaba un equipo
de colaboradores y una variada lista de instrumentos, pero no, este disco
lo hizo Jon DeRosa (así se llama el que firma como Aarktica) completamente
solo, y no se ha valido de instrumentos electrónicos propiamente
dichos. Todo lo que suena aquí ha salido de una guitarra y un órgano
Bilhorn de los años treinta, si bien algunos efectos se han trabajado
directamente con las cintas de grabación, como en los orígenes
del ambient.
¿De entrada piensas
que un disco así no es para ti? Te invito a escuchar las dos canciones
de formato tradicional que aparecen en él, ambas cantadas por DeRosa:
"Hollow Earth Theory" y un inesperado cóver de (¡tómala!)
Danzig, "Am I Demon?", para el cual han hecho un video Virginia Apicella
y Beppe Blasi en Italia. Apuntan en direcciones distintas, la primera es
de un optimismo deliberado prácticamente ausente en la obra anterior
de este autor; la segunda conserva el tono de la original, llevado a un
estado de ánimo meditabundo.
El resto, puramente instrumental,
remite al álbum debut No Solace in Sleep (2000), pero más
melódico, con insistentes punteos de guitarra que se desarrollan
sobre drones y acordes en progresión, como avanzar sobre un campo
desolado pero con una primera luz despuntando en el horizonte. "LYMZ" es
un agradecimiento para La Monte Young y Marian Zazeela, los mentores de
Aarktica, quienes además de composición y canto tradicional
de la India le enseñaron a escuchar la música incluso cuando
no puedes percibirla como el resto del público, algo que fue determinante
para que DeRosa abandonara el rock y folk y se adentrara en el género
con el que le conocemos ahora.
2. En el ambient no faltan
las leyendas, los momentos biográficos que explican hallazgos musicales.
Comenzando con el mito fundacional, la anécdota con la que Brian
Eno explica como decidió su tránsito del glam y el rock a
la fundación del sello disquero Obscure, que ha sido recogida en
diversos textos. Reproduzco aquí un fragmento:
"En enero de 1975 tuve un
accidente, un taxi me atropelló. No estaba seriamente herido, pero
estaba confinado en la cama con una posición rígida y estática.
Mi amigo Judy Nylon me visitó y me trajo un disco de música
de arpa del siglo XVIII. Después de que se marchase, y con bastante
dificultad, puse el disco. Cuando ya estaba acostado, me di cuenta de que
el volumen era extremadamente bajo y uno de los canales del estéreo
no funcionaba. Como no tenía energía suficiente para levantarme
y arreglarlo, el disco era casi inaudible. Estaba acostado en una semipenumbra,
y entonces empecé a escuchar ese disco como nunca antes había
escuchado música alguna. Era realmente una experiencia muy bella.
Tenía la sensación de icebergs. No podía oír
más que ocasionalmente los fragmentos más fuertes de la música,
no percibía más que pequeñas ráfagas de notas
que me llegaban por encima del ruido de la lluvia de afuera, y enseguida
volvían a marcharse a la deriva. Así empecé a reflexionar
sobre la música como ambiente" (Brian Eno citado por Quim Casas
en Loops, una historia de la música electrónica, p. 86)
Harold Budd también
explica su música también con una historia personal. Fue
criado en el desierto de Mojave y el sonido que hacía el viento
contra los cables de teléfono y las torres eléctricas fueron
la banda sonora de su infancia. Su música va más allá
de ese zumbido primario, pero nace de ese recuerdo. En el caso de Jon DeRosa
se trata de un acontecimiento del que no ha podido desprenderse en el resto
de su vida: a fines de los noventa perdió la capacidad de escuchar
con su oído derecho, lo que produjo alucinaciones auditivas y una
sensación de escuchar las cosas "como si estuviera bajo del agua".
El título que ha escogido ahora, In Sea, alude a esa condición,
al mismo tiempo que hace un juego de palabras con "In C", la composición
minimalista de Terry Riley. Al margen de los juegos de palabras y las experiencias
biográficas, permítanse sumergirse en este disco. Si les
atrae, visiten el primero, No Solace in Sleep (sobre advertencia no hay
engaño: es más denso y sombrío).
~ Nicolas Diaz, Milenio
Con gli Aarktica e il loro
album In Sea, pur restando dentro i confini del post-rock, le atmosfere
sono abbastanza diverse (e per quel che conta li preferisco ai Remora).
Gli Aarktica sono l’invenzione
di Jon DeRosa un compositore che scopre a fine anni ’90 di essersi giocato
un orecchio per un problema fisico. Invece di perdersi d’animo, inizia
a bombarsi di antidolorifici (!) e - ma questa è una mia ipotesi
- a bere forte, visto che in un’intervista dichiarerà di aver
iniziato a provare delle allucinazioni uditive. Le sue opere, compreso
l’album che ho per le orecchie (In Sea) è un tentativo di riprodurre
proprio queste allucinazioni.
Da un punti di vista musicale,
gli Aarktica sono un gruppo sospeso tra lunghe trame strumentali alla Eluvium
o Helios (epigoni a loro volta di compositori come Philip Glass e Brian
Eno) o pezzi post-rock alla Sigur Ros. Qualche volta fa capolino pure la
voce, come nella cover di Danzig “Am I Demon” e in “Hollow Earth Theory”
(qui si avverte qualche eco lontano di “TV on The Radio”). Sono due pezzi
davvero belli che fanno nascere il dubbio che gli Aarktica possano
ancora avere un’evoluzione verso sonorità interessanti anche dal
punto di vista commerciale.
L’album è molto gradevole,
a parte qualche battuta a vuoto (“Corpse Reviver Number 2”) e come accostamento
il sommellier vi propone una bella domenica mattina uggiosa (ma di quelle
con il big match in posticipo serale), da pigiama e ciabatte e grattata
di soddisfazione alle parti basse, osservando il mondo fuori mentre si
bagna.
~ Black Milk
Que sait-il passer dans la
vie de Jon DeRosa depuis Matchless Years paru en 2008 ? A-t-il touché
le succès de trop près avec son projet Aarktica ? Lui qui
semblait avoir abandonné les drones au profit d’une écriture
plus pop éthérée, a-t-il eu l’impression de se perdre
loin de ses bases, de ses racines ? En avait-il assez de faire appel aux
autres pour donner corps à sa musique ? En tout cas, après
son exil sur la Côte Ouest, le voilà de retour au bercail
après plusieurs réalisations chez Darla. Un retour à
propos puisque Aarktica applique scrupuleusement les canons édictés
par la label de Caroline du Nord. Seul maître à bord de son
navire fantôme, il inscrit In The Sea, dans la continuité
de Pure Tone Audiometry, son album le plus ambiant justement paru en 2003
sur... Silber Records. Comme quoi, on peut parfois se fier aux "étiquettes".
Un véritable revirement,
car les mélodies "catchy" de Matchless Years, l’évidence
même qui transparaissait tout au long de ses précédents
disques, sont ici trop souvent délayées au fil de longues
plages ambiantes, essentiellement instrumentales. A tel point qu’on est
bien à la peine pour s’accrocher à un motif mélodique
sur certaines plages éthérées à l’extrême.
Le long morceau A Plague Of Frost (In The Guise Of Diamonds) est ainsi
une sorte de plongée dans un abyme de néant ; Instill tourne
en boucle au gré des vagues et du ressac, alors que Onward ! ou
In Sea se situent tout juste au dessus de la ligne de flottaison : des
étendues d’eau calme tout juste parcourues d’une très légère
brise. Heureusement, par ailleurs, il y a un peu plus de mouvement, de
courant, et l’ondulation prend forme lorsque Aarktica déploie des
lignes de guitare lumineuses sur un tapis synthétique dense comme
sur Young Light, l’un des morceaux les plus intenses d’In The Sea, ou When
We’tre Ghosts, presque tempétueux. Et puis, il y a Hollow Earth
Theory, poussé par la dérive littorale depuis les rivages
de Matchless Years pour venir s’échouer ici : Jon DeRosa chante
alors une belle chanson mélancolique, une bulle en apesanteur, qui
fait amèrement regretté qu’il ait délaissé
cette orientation sur In The Sea. La reprise en fin de parcours de Am I
Demon ? de Danzig, seul autre morceau chanté, ne fait qu’accroître
ce sentiment : après une album à la douceur cotonneuse, Aarktica
livre un album glacial.
~ Denis Frelat, Autres Directions
"In Sea" ist eine Hommage
an Terry Rileys "In C" und gleichzeitig auch der Verweis auf die ambientigen
Kältelandschaften, die Jon DeRosa in wunderbare Gitarrenläufe
packt und nebenbei immer wieder mit zuckerwattigen Shoegaze-Vocals versieht.
Fabulöser Abschluss auch mit Danzigs "Am I Demon?".
~ Daniel Kr?ál, Rokko's
Adventures |