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No Solace in Sleep
CD Album 2000 | Silber 012 8 tracks, 64 minutes $12 ($18 international, $5 download (256 kbps, ~113 megs)) : More info |
No Solace in Sleep
is set to be the atmospheric album of the year as far as I'm concerned.
I can't see anything else even coming close. The beauty and expansiveness
found on this release are simply stunning.
~ Pretty Bruises
Think of this CD as the aural
score for the aurora borealis, each note a shimmer display of color; the
tones as waves of light...Simply captivating.
~ Mass Transfer
Excellent and gently lulling
ambient/drone frequencies from Jon DeRosa, who combines guitars and electronics
into a distinctly unified sound ala SEEFEEL but minus the beats and vocals.
The icy, melodic aural terrain has a soft, introspective feel that conjures
images of slowly enveloping fields of snow and trees swaying in a cold
wintry wind. Just gorgeous work that’s well recommended.
~ Godsend
In 1998, Jon started this
project ‘as an experiment in sound to recreate and convey the tones heard
through one deaf ear.’ Originally nothing more than "tape-hiss lullabies
lacking structure, composed through a blur of painkillers and insomnia
on a 4-track cassette recorder,’ Aarktica graduated to these multi-layered,
effects-laden, post-Eno ambient guitar suites in a little less than a year!
Imagine a greatest hits mix tape consisting of the best of Windy &
Carl, Stars of the Lid, Labradford and early Azusa Plane and you're on
the right track. And while De Rosa has said, ‘there's a certain charm to
the spontaneity of drone music,’ he was quick to add, ‘I also find that
that can take away from its overall credibility.’ This release is his attempt
at marrying the two approaches. ‘While recording the album, I actually
spent days mapping out many pieces, notating them and treating each piece
like I would a string quartet.’ Let's examine the results of that endeavor.
A few minutes into the opener, ‘Glacia,’ you may find yourself adjusting
the volume to find out whether you've just purchased a blank CD! Whispering
waves of sonic molasses drip out of your speakers as De Rosa replicates
the ambience of an iceberg floating through the midnight Atlantic: dark,
cold and immense. ‘Indie’ has nothing to do with a sub-genre of music and
everything to do with pain, although the two are often indistinguishable
these days! The far off sound of a beating (ear)drum (his own?) places
us squarely in his world of frustration with the inability to clearly ‘hear’
the sounds of civilization around him. This sense of swimming in quicksand
coupled with the sonic interpretation of the ‘sounds in his head’ continues
through most of the record and is emphasized in titles like ‘You Have Cured
A Million Ghosts from Roaming in My Head,’ ‘The Ice (Feels Three Feet Thick
Between Us)’ and ‘I Remember Life Above the Surface.’ The seemingly pretentious
titles can be overlooked as one is enveloped in the sheer expanse of the
sonic sensual overload. The aural equivalent of syrup dripping down a ‘short
stack’ is interrupted by the Nick Drake-esque ‘Welcome Home.’ Fittingly,
it seems to be a self-directed imperative and is the lone track with a
clearly identifiable guitar. DeRosa has escaped from his ‘fantastic voyage’
through his inner ear, but I, for one, was glad to be along for the ride.
You will be, too.
~ The Broken Face
Jon DeRosa's sonic innovation.
Experimental soundscapes with nods to Flying Saucer Attack, Windy &
Carl, Mogwai, & Labradford. Beautiful.
~ Stinkweeds
I received this CD just after
multiple consecutive cloudy days had kept me from seeing the Northern Lights
for what might be the only time in my life. Those enigmatic handprints
of the Sun on the Earth's aura had permeated my speech, roiled & glimmered
in my dreams, & tingled colored static along the edges of my awareness
for years, a favorite part of my personal cosmology, & finally came
to visit - only to find the curtains drawn. I couldn't explain or
even fully understand why this devastated me so, & half wondered why
it wasn't what I'd failed to see, but what had failed to see me that I
missed. Something as awesomely fantastical as the aurora borealis
is just so much more real if you can look at it, rather than just knowing
it's there. I'm as alienated as anyone else, & it almost felt
like I'd missed the Velveteen Rabbit's opportunity to become real myself.
Listening to these shimmering night-ocean songs of perception slowed nearly
to a stop melted that world-self barrier to a point I'd never reached before.
Both grandiose & dissolute, No Solace in Sleep is what it might be
like to dance with a "hungry ghost" of the Bardo Thodol just as it began
to realize that being All might be preferable to being a frustrated fragment.
There's an unspeakable tenderness to this ponderously gentle music, like
the sea who lets the sailor live just because it can. Softly ringing,
echoing rhythms seem almost buried under the shifting ultramarine layers
until you realize that the full ambience is no more than the dance of the
individual themes. "Rapture of the deep," the divers call it.
Now I can say I've been there. In his attempt to create something
completely new, Jon DeRosa has instead tapped directly into the heart of
something older than speech, leaving me once again slithering through a
loose tangle of metaphors in complete darkness. (Thanks, Jon!)
Even knowing that the stars I see as I listen are anomalies in my retinas
or phantoms conjured out of my above-world memories, I realize that the
only important thing is that I can see them -- by being them. &
so by being the aurora borealis, I can see that too, & so much more.
I can twist & shatter along the cold prickle of geospin, I can arch
& shift & flash in colors well beyond the visible, I can sing with
a beauty that stuns radio to stammering silence. & I do.
~ Gothic Preservation Society
This debut album from Jon
DeRosa is simply beautiful. A captivating musical experience that is a
story without words, yet completely within the realm of human understanding.
No
Solace in Sleep made my whole body chill as if it had just been dipped
into fresh snow. But the chill it delivers is more comforting than anything.
The music locks you in a trance that can only be comprehendble through
direct experience. There is a rare beauty delivered with the CD...a striking
combination of mystery and familiarity. I can honestly say this release
sent a shiver straight through my heart. Although I'm not usually a big
fan of experimental music, No Solace in Sleep managed to generate a feeling
of serenity inside of me that no other performer ever has.
~ Bleeding Minds