Loscil – First Narrows

The electro-oceanic sounds of Loscil can be attributed primarily to a single man, one Scott Morgan. Mr. Morgan has released a few albums under the name of Loscil thus far, and on his third, First Narrows, he attains a sort of static motion similar to a single frame of film, or a photograph of rippling waves. First Narrows is the sound of constant unchanging release, of the long slow diffusion, over countless moments of unknowing significance, of all stress and urgency. The space where underwater collisions of currents and rhythmic gulf streams create pockets of perfect silence and turbulent inertia is the sonic territory Loscil calls home.

Much in the way that Crooked Fingers’ second album Bring on the Snakes resembled folk music being played underwater, Loscil’s understated minimalist drones could be electronic dance music made deep within the northern extremities of the Pacific Ocean. Scott Morgan coordinated live instrumentation from guitar, cello, and Fender Rhodes along with various pieces of computer generated music; the result is a comforting combination of organic sounds and unassuming clicks, pulses, and swells.

The seven long tracks gently ease into one long blur of atmosphere and modest melody. These are songs barely heard through the haze of fog lifting off the Pacific, the passing glimpses of Vancouver one can snatch when out at sea. Vague outlines of songs and melodies can be picked out amidst the formless fog of Loscil‘s compositions. There is little in the way of variation from track to track, but that works well with the glacial mesmerism that is Morgan’s overall aesthetic. That sense of still movement, of drifting forward and about with little physical sensation, of losing one’s self in a soothing sound, is the defining element of First Narrows. The entire album is a cohesive whole of unchanging flow.

I’m not that well versed in the Loscil back catalogue, and outside of listening to “Equinox” every Sunday night on WUOG back in ‘99 I’m not normally one to keep up with this sort of stuff. Therefore I have no idea how to judge Scott Morgan’s music against the work of his peers. I do know that First Narrows is a record from which I have taken particular enjoyment. The yawning chasm of entrancing sound stirred up by Morgan makes me lose sight of the time that passes swiftly while listening to First Narrows. It’s a good bit of noise mongering, it is.