The tracklist is misleading on this one, as despite containing a mere three songs, the disc runs well over an hour in total length. What's more, the three tracks are simply selections taken from a massive three-hour live performance conducted in a field in the middle of the night during summer 2003... in a section of an old fairground called the "field of drones". An appropriate title for this release indeed, as each composition tops 20 minutes of minimal drones, generally rising and falling slowly over time, and possessing a great air of eerie melody that creates a lulled hypnotic atmosphere. "Twilight" takes more than 10 minutes to start significantly increasing in volume and texture, bringing in a few more layers much later in the piece, but nothing that really changes the overall pacing or flow significantly at all. "Darkness Encroaching" is deeper and even less active at the start, using immensely dense low-end throbs for several minutes as a sinister sort of midrange hum starts to come in closer to the midway point. From that point on some subtle textures with a brighter edge start sneaking into the distance, but the oppressive low-end remains dominant and hovers over everything else throughout. Closing out the disc is the more openly melodic "Shadows", fading in with some lush melodies that, while dense and heavily reverberated, do possess much more of a "musical" sort of flare (and effectively so). This is the most repetitious piece as a whole, though oddly enough it does have a little more movement going on in its individual elements. The CD-R comes secured between two pieces of thin cardboard, with the text on the cover scratched into a thin layer of green paint. A xeroxed insert is inside containing the tracklist and numerous liner notes regarding the release. Not bad for an inexpensive D.I.Y. affair at all. This is very nice material. True, it's not much of an active listen as in more than an hour there are few significant changes; but for this style of billowy, droning work the flow is very consistent and has a lot of soothing characteristics that make it play out quite well. While its length may be redundant, I'd have been truly interested in witnessing this spectacle in its original live setting, at least in part, as I bet that really would've been an effective scenario for this material. These are actually some of the finest sounds I've heard from Aidan Baker to date.
[Arcolepsy]
Running time - 77:04, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are quite nice]
Arcolepsy Records - http://www.turn.to/arcolepsy/
