In the last ten years, Scott “Loscil” Morgan has built himself quite a reputation in creating fascinating ambient music.
“Endless Falls” is the follow up to 2006′ “Plume” (not counting last year’s EP “Strathcona Variations”).
The cover image immediately takes us to the main theme of this album: Rain.
Pictured through a bright glass window. Not too dark – fresh – welcome even, to settle down the dust.
That’s in fact a description of the atmosphere of the album, too.
“Endless Falls” starts off with the very impressive post-classical title track featuring a violin part by Robert Sparks.
From there, the atmosphere slowly gets darker as well as more electronic.
Estuarine still features piano sound to cling to, but at the third track (Shallow Water Blackout), we’re in deep electronic territory. Beautiful glitchy drone sounds, dubby echo effects, and deep rhythms to keep you interested enough not to drift away completely.
Near the end of the album, it’s like surfacing again, back to the real world.
The last track ‘The Making of Grief Point’ brings in a surprise by introducing spoken word vocals (by Daniel Bejar from New Pornographers. According to Wikipedia he’s “renowned for his challenging and often cryptic lyrics and unorthodox vocals”.
Over a beautiful glitchy background, he talks about something that sounds like a description of the birth of a musical track, a composition growing. I cannot completely understand what he talks about, but as he admits himself “The right reading is that I just don’t understand it…at all”.
“I’ve lost interest in music. It’s horrible.”
As peaceful as the album starts, the dramatic it ends when after the Bejar’s statement “It is done” the pouring rain sets in again.
This closing track may be a style break from those before, it’s also a subtle climax distinguishing this album from many others in the genre.
It’s not music that’s never been heard before, but Scott Morgan definitely masters the genre.