This 1-song album was pieced together in multiple short sittings through the duration of my recovery time, following my recent operation. A long, slow-burner track that initially flows with a pretty yet eerie calm, and eventually blossoms into a divine roaring tide
The meaning of this 33 minute single track could be interpreted in one of two ways;
1. A deep-sea diver's journey into the sea, from the shallows, through the various depths, to the ocean floor (with serene passages to represent the stops for decompression due to changes to the air pressure etc), or
2. A metaphor for my sepsis induced fever dreams and fading health, being rushed into hospital, having an emergency operation under anesthetic, and being left to my own devices in my recovery time
I will let the listener decide which they feel is more appropriate
Self recorded at home
Intentionally lo-fi & raw
As ever, I left in all of the little imperfections, like string scrapes and chokes etc
A lot of the sounds are deliberately rough and "in the red", as I wanted things to sound like they were partially damaged and on the verge of collapse
I recommend a good set of bass heavy speakers for listening
The sounds on this recording were created using heavy rhythm guitars, some modulated clean guitars, octave down fuzz guitars, ambient guitar layers played with a bow, drums, choirs, violins, violas, cellos, double bass, upright bass, electric bass, synth bass, tubas, trombones, trumpets, French horns, flugelhorn, clarinet, flute, glockenspiel, piano (bounced onto an "old cassette" VST, and played back with decay and flutter, and placed low in the mix), Moog, organ, mellotron (solo flute setting & 3 violins setting), gong, timpani, digitally manipulated lighthouse foghorn samples, sonars, samples of divers breathing and swimming underwater, saxophone, & a number of synth VSTs
The song is in D minor, with some chromatic movements to conjure dread, and there is some use of the Picardy third to have some glorious D majors in amongst the D minor chords
Influences:
Wrekmeister Harmonies
Bismuth
Wolvserpent
Year of No Light
Abyssal (Mexico)
Boris
Nadja
Aidan Baker
[B O L T]
Jo Quail
Ocean of Ghosts
Catafalque
The Owl
Bobby Krlic
Nils Frahm
Ólafur Arnalds
credits
released January 12, 2024
Written/performed/recorded/produced/mixed/mastered by Wilderness of Mirrors
I came for the chilli sauce and stayed for the music! Popped into the chilli shop in Leeds, and was recommended the sauce. The band were playing on the speaker in the shop, and I had to pick up the album. Reminiscent of all the best 90's shoegaze. marshionist