Claymation - Mourning Rituals

2013 nanoBOX Records, NB003

A1: Satellite Down
A2: Grounding Wheel
B1: Orogens
B2: Ronin

Claymation is the solo project of Troy, NY based composer/guitarist Baird Buchanan and this, Mourning Rituals is his second full length release but the first, I believe, to have been issued on lovely vinyl. The record is available in standard black vinyl, and also in what the record label calls "electric blue in Coke bottle green" coloured vinyl. I have the latter version, and it is indeed a very eye-catching slab of vinyl.

Side one opener "Satellite Down" takes up the lion's share of this side of the disc with a running time of approx 17 minutes. It's a slowly evolving piece that - despite its eeriness - still manages to lull the listener into a false sense of security. It manages to both instill a sense of calm, albeit an uneasy calm, and then a sense of high tension as cathedral-sized slabs of treated electric baritone guitar (which you'd be forgiven for not even recognising as sounds that might originate from a guitar) gradually build up into loops of haunting atmospherics before being overwhelmed by the onset of a wall of fuzz and static which eventually recedes into the distance to allow the piece to ebb away like the turning tide.

The second piece on side one, "Grouding Wheel" is more industrial-sounding - I get the sense of it illustrating some industrial process. Like the preceding piece, you could imagine it being used as part of a SciFi or Horror soundtrack but where "Satellite Down" conveys a feeling of awe and wonderment, "Grounding Wheel" sounds as if it's the backing music for something more graphic in nature.

The guitar is far more easily identified on side two opener "Orogens", with a simple motif being picked out slowly and deliberately, the whole being drenched in delay and reverb.

Final piece, "Ronin" is another quarter of an hour cut which begins with an almost didgeridoo-like drone before effected guitar pads sweep into the mix, whilst other sounds whirr like chugging engines beneath a more delicately picked and restrained guitar motif. A sense of movement is conveyed; I'm not talking racing along at great speeds, but rather it is a drifting motion, slow but relentless. In my mind's eye, images are conjured up of travelling by boat across a vast but very still lake by sun-rise. Gradually as the sun climbs higher in the sky, other traffic is encountered upon the lake until the waters are bustling with a myriad of boats and ships.

I'd recommend this record to anyone into experimental and/or ambient instrumental music. Head on over to FRSTS.com to score your own copy.