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Lachlan R. Dale returns with his debut full-length Shrines, a suite of transportive ambient explorations out 26 April on Art As Catharsis.
The album marks something of a change of pace for Lachlan. In contrast to his work with Hashshashin - whose emphasis on odd-time signatures, cinematic composition, and Central Eastern influences has marked them out in the world of post-rock - Shrines is a purely ambient affair inspired by artists like Loscil, Fennesz, and Rafael Anton Irisarri.
It’s also a deeply collaborative project, having been co-produced by Lachlan’s long-time collaborator Tim Carr (We Lost The Sea, Totally Unicorn), mastered by Becki Whitton, and featuring contributions from some of Australia’s finest experimental musicians - Aphir, Bonniesongs, Gelareh Pour of ZÖJ, Helen Svoboda, Joseph Rabjohns of Kodiak Empire, Peter Hollo of FourPlay String Quartet, and many more.
The album comes off the back of Hashshashin’s recent EP, Śaraṇaṃ (2023), and a split record in 2021 with fellow guitarist Joseph Rabjohns, Eclipsing // Orbs.
“This record is unlike any other I’ve been a part of,” comments Lachlan. “It began with a period of experimentation. I would disappear into my home studio for hours on end, trying to push my pedalboard into strange new territories. Gradually, I recorded a collection of loops and textures without any particular aim.”
“After wading through the collection, I started sending tracks to other musicians to respond to. From the results that came back, the idea of the album began to take shape. Tim and I then had to sit down and work out how to refine and re-arrange the material. It’s been quite a process.”
Shrines can be thought of as a collection of immersive sonic worlds - some of which floating by like works of luminous alien beauty, while others have a grounded, earthy feeling.
The opening song, ‘Objects come in waves’, conveys an ecstatic state, while the album’s final track, ‘Dissipating in the sun’, evokes a deep and silent meditation. In between, ‘And the trees swaying gently like flame’ suggests consciousness flooded with light and beauty, while ‘Merely smoke ascending’ flickers as low and lazily as incense smoke rising into the air.
Shrines is an explorative and introspective release, as much about inner experience as connection and communion. It’s a journey that's sometimes beautiful, other times disquieting, but always hypnotic and transportive.
credits
releases April 26, 2024
Lachlan Dale - guitar
Co-producer & mix engineer - Tim Carr
Additional co-production on tracks 1, 5 and 9 - Josh Bowling
Cover art - Lachlan Dale
Original photo taken by Charlie Elizabeth in Taranaki, Aotearoa
Recorded across various locations in 2020 to 2024
Featuring:
Track 1: Aphir (vocals, loops, fx), Joseph Rabjohns (guitar, fx)
Track 2: Brendan Clark (electric bass)
Track 3: Simon Dawes (guitar / fx)
Track 4: Francisco Sonur (guitar, synth, fx), Migret (vocals), Andrew Mortensen (electric bass)
Track 5: Peter Hollo (cello)
Track 6: Bonniesongs (guitar, vocals, loops), Joseph Rabjohns (guitar, fx)
Track 7: Helen Svoboda (double bass), Brendan Clark (electric bass)
Lachlan R. Dale is a Sydney musician plumbing strange and unexpected sounds.
Inspired by the
free-flowing nature of Indian classical music, informed by doom, progressive metal and post-rock - Lachlan envelops audiences in a swirling mass of cinematic drone and psychedelia.
Lachlan also plays in Hashshashin, Black Aleph, and runs Art As Catharsis & Worlds Within Worlds....more
This is a very good and varied drone album from a duo new to me (thanks Art As Catharsis - another winner). I've only just bought it so I haven't given it a real 'deep listen' yet but I wanted to give it a boost. To my ears, 'I Cut The Sun' has a hint of Soliloquy For Lilith about it, so it gets my vote! Del Buck
I like the stylistic dialogue between this and Yamadori, which appear to me as an expansive study on contrasts, while Years Under Glass is like a subtle, nuanced etching examining harmony and balance, denser and more spiritually distinctive, and the album artwork captures that aptly. It's amazing how it plays with genre tropes, with an amount of this spontaneous, intuitive dynamics and rhythmic power most of the bands don't possess. Thank you for your art guys! Much love from Ukraine :) Terrence Falconer
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Recorded before a live audience, these compositions leverage the strengths of two ambient masters into a hypnotic 18-track set. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 25, 2024
Producer and composer Dan Frizza takes us on an emotional journey through boyhood, adolescence, and adulthood with ethereal ambient folk. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 31, 2023
Boy-girl harmonies, deep fuzz stoner baselines, and cosmic anthems—Turtle Skull nails everything Black Mountain used to do before BM got that divorced dad sound. Josh Steichmann