Hierophant Nox

ALBUM REVIEW

Aarktica - In Sea
Silber Records
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.