The eminent ambient musician Lawrence English’s Bandcamp bio tags him as “a philosopher of listening”. It’s a description that captures the relationship between his intricate soundscapes and applied thinking. English does not impose a message on his compositions but his work invites you to connect with the tensions which have inspired his music. Take his last two solo releases. ‘Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds’ questioned how sonics and space interact while ‘White Out’ explored the fragility of Antarctica and the impending Anthropocene. Now comes ‘The Rest Is My Ghost’ and a recording which in English’s words “considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures”. So “Won’t get fooled again” is the dilemma that English is tussling with here.
Although listed as ten tracks ‘The Rest Is My Ghost’ is episodic, an uncurling narrative flowing towards, if not a resolution, then an opening onto a different horizon. Many of the titles of each segment, Sodium Vapour Halo, Metabolic City, One Line Sky, Aerial Cable suggest some kind of urbanised Armageddon but that’s far too one dimensional for English. This master of electronic ambient composition once again weaves layers, both delicate and dense, where meanings wait to be discovered. Opening section 大 creates that anticipation with its single, reverberating drum beat and evolving sonorous drone. Yet within the monotone, a faint choir and chord progression hover as if stirring a memory.
As on the recent ‘Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds’ collaborating musicians play a fundamental role here. Chris Abrahams and Tony Buck of The Necks, Thrill Jockey alumni Chuck Johnson, The Swans’ Thor Harris and Norman Westberg, avant jazzer Mats Gustafsson plus Room 40 compatriots Madeleine Cocolas and Heinz Reigler all make understated appearances. For an album which confronts the shallowness of manufactured nostalgia, English infuses their musical contributions into the pieces with a creative subtlety. He seems determined to look forwards and not arrive at some form of ‘expected’ ambient music retrospective.
This focus has inspired English to produce in ‘The Rest Is My Ghost’ another distinctive album which underlines his significance as a contemporary composer. On early listens certain moments seize attention: the crumbling granulations of Acid Nostalgia where Westberg’s minimal guitar twists and writhes in the swell; the softness that the Cocolas vocal instils into the electronic drone of Metabolic City; and the counter-melody which distant organ chimes offer to the evolution of Eclosion.
Elsewhere the visual imagery that the soundscape inspires is incredibly vivid. The pent-up pressure of Sodium Vapour Halo rumbles and hisses as the layers gradually separate. On Grey’s Shadow bass notes proceed carefully as if haunted by the distant gamelan harmonics. Perhaps One Line Sky is the most immediately graphic, the persistent “tring” of an incoming signal urgently piercing the white noise monotone before a symphonic murmur overwhelms.
As the penultimate episode Hack circles the final expanse of the album, Chris Abrahams’ piano makes a soft appeal and there seems to be a glimmer of light. Ghost Type marks the conclusion. Insects chirp, debris rattles and swathes of voices rise. While a symphonic tide ebbs and flows, a bell tolls and finally strikes alone. It’s a dramatic finale steeped in ambiguity, suggesting decline maybe or possibly restoration. What’s not in doubt though is that with ‘The Rest Is My Ghost’, Lawrence English continues to enthrall.
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