An Echo in the Sound is a transcendent collection of song writing and ambient studio production that culminated amid the dissolution of the band Filthybird, featuring members Renee & Brian Mendoza Haran and Chris Girard. Named after the dying art of ocean-floor diving practiced by Japanese women, Ama Divers plunge vulnerably into cold depths and after enduring long, dark, breathless moments, return to the surface for air.
Centered around piano compositions and vocal meditations written in the bucolic panorama of rural North Carolina, the backbone of this release was initially conceived by Renee Mendoza Haran, also notable for her vocals in the lush synth-punk group Ashrae Fax. Reflecting on the beautiful yet unforgiving ecosystem of wildlife in the area, the music takes on a prayer-like lamentation of constant growth, survival, futility, and death. She found animals feasting on one another and ensnared by the interventions of civilization, "thinking about human nature and how we are really winding ourselves into a place where the species may not be able to survive."
Upon entering the studio, a system of delays and effects were assembled off of the mixing console in which Brian could process each instrument live in an improvisational setting. He steals moments from each channel going forwards and backwards, distorted, in and out of phase, all the while never drowning the delicate instrumentation with his washes of subtle noise and resonant drones. The piano and occasional vocals remain at the heart, with Chris Girard's fragile guitars supporting the atmospheres that shift gracefully from bleak to triumphant. Listening to this release, my ears end up in territory reminiscent of Eno's Music for Films, composer Henryk Gorecki, and the softer moments of both Tuxedomoon and Work/Death. This is a sort of listening that I crave and highly recommend to people of almost any musical preference.
Adam Morosky (Timeghost)
Side A- Aftermath, Crawling Out, I want to follow, Sea of Tranquility.
Side B- You, Sea Saw, When Winter Never Came
download is 16bit 44.1khz WAV file.
credits
released November 7, 2016
Renee Mendoza Haran - Piano, Voice
Brian Haran - keys, guitar, oscillators, recording
Chris Girard - Guitar, tape manipulations
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