(2019) Channelers - The Depth of Rest


Review:
Some ambient artists treat field recordings as secondary add-ons to their productions; in Sean Conrad’s Channelers material, however, they’re critical parts of the equation, zones that collapse the boundaries between the imaginary and the actual and in so doing transport the listener to exotic places. As he’s done with earlier Channelers releases, the Inner Islands showrunner brands the material with his personal signature through the incorporation of instrument sounds, which, in the case of The Depth of Rest, includes keyboards, dulcimer, and Irish low whistle. Recorded in March 2019, the forty-minute cassette backs three A-side pieces with the release’s coup de grace, the twenty-minute title setting. Conrad’s allegiance to the role of field recordings in his work is evident from the outset when “A Quiet Invitation” begins with water and bird sounds. But conventional musical elements are equally important to the production, as shown by the presence of a keyboard drone and jaunty melodic patterns that appear alongside the nature elements. Even if it’s an illusion, the image evoked is of a musician playing within the landscape as opposed to separate entities combined using digital tools. “Coming to Fullness” repeats the formula, with this time the ambiance of a tropical setting conjured by the nature sounds and simple, minimal keyboard patterns again deployed to impart distinguishing character. As if designed to accentuate the kind of inversion Conrad sometimes favours in these pieces, “Strange and Familiar” emphasizes nature sounds more than the instruments until the balance gradually shifts to emphasize the stirring sound of the Irish low whistle and the swoop of electronic accents. It’s a particularly alluring piece, especially when the pace at which it unfurls is so relaxed. As lovely as “Strange and Familiar” is, the title track leaves an even stronger impression when dulcimer’s the lead instrument and the field recordings-drenched setting advances as languorously as it does. Like Conrad’s work in general, “The Depth of Rest” is soothing, peaceful, calming in effect, and more than a little capable of inducing a meditative daze. This luscious, New Age-styled epic sparkles softly and iridescently, and it would be easy to imagine the material looping for hours on end to work its slow dazzle all the more potently. As articulated by Conrad, he aspired on the release to “create musical scenes of parallel and sympathetic resonance” to “the gestures of the landscape and its indigenous nature.” Certainly the four scene-paintings reflect both the sincerity of the attempt and its successful realization.





Tracklist:
01 - A Quiet Invitation
02 - Coming to Fullness
03 - Strange and Familiar
04 - The Depth of Rest


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits