Through delicately shifting ambient pads and the hum of slow-swirling synthesizers, the EP recognizes hopelessness and pushes past it with aspirations for a brighter future. The yearning drones of Desolate paint a portrait of the bleak situation brought on by COVID-19 and parse through the emotional weight of moving onward in the face of global
Through delicately shifting ambient pads and the hum of slow-swirling synthesizers, the EP recognizes hopelessness and pushes past it with aspirations for a brighter future. The yearning drones of Desolate paint a portrait of the bleak situation brought on by COVID-19 and parse through the emotional weight of moving onward in the face of global loss.
The heart of Desolate is its ability and willingness to contemplate the ambiguities of desolation. At its most hopeless, the music broods, cold and unflinching, but as it meditates further and opens up, each track offers a way through the fog of desolation and into the light. On “Above,” that way through is the climbing yowls of a synthesizer plodding its way to the forefront of the mix. On “Forward,” the way through takes the form of a slow, passionate fade into oblivion—a coming to peace with what came before. Desolate charts an uneasy path, but it is the path necessary for recuperation.
Drifting In Silence continues its fruitful relationship with Rafael Anton Irisarri (Loscil, Telefon Tel Aviv, Biosphere) who has again provided his inimitable mastering services to polish the post-minimalist EP. Derrick Stembridge remains the force behind Drifting In Silence and he has been forging new ways to examine our world through sound since 2006.