(2020) Silent Vigils - Wake


Review:
While not a panacea, Wake, the concluding chapter in Silent Vigils‘ trilogy of Home Normal albums, offers peaceful music for pandemic times. For thirty-eight minutes, one can temporarily set aside real-world woes and bask in the serene realm conjured with care by ambient practitioners Stijn Hüwels and James Murray. A sense of harmonious uplift is intimated by “Wake,” the first of four soundscapes, when shimmering, glassy tones swell into an engulfing mass. Church organ chords, subterranean rumblings, and blurry choral exhalations come together in a lulling setting that blossoms in slow motion, the creators committed to letting the material unfold according to its own inherent logic. Despite a slightly more minimal presentation, “Mokugomi” exudes an air of both melancholy and regality in its arrangement of crystalline elements, after which a coating of graininess gives “Munhitsu” an industrial tinge without distancing the piece extensively from the others in general tone and mood. Reinstating the calming ambiance of the opener is “Unborn,” a fitting resolution to the recording and the Silent Vigils project, if, in fact, Wake is the project’s final statement. Text accompanying the release deems the recording “an uplifting and timely salve for these troubled times,” which “Unborn” more than lives up to. A segue occurs halfway through whereby swooping, steel guitar-like timbres initiate a slow build that sees the recording exit on a glorious wave. For that gesture alone, Wake amply rewards the time spent giving oneself to it.





Tracklist:
01 - Wake
02 - Mokugomi
03 - Munhitsu
04 - Unborn


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