These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound - Richard Skelton (2020)

Ideated from: clearing out the oldest items in my inbox

I’ve been meditating off and on for close to 30 years. I’m in an “off” period at the moment, because I got to a point where I felt like I was living a dual life: calm while meditating, but anxious and agitated when living my normal life. So I’ve lately tried to take the lessons of years of meditation and apply them to my regular day, trying to keep the mindfulness and clarity I cherish even when I’m not sitting with my eyes closed. It isn’t a perfect process, but I think it’s been good for me.

Sometimes I find music that puts me back into that meditative state with such force that I just have to stop and absorb it. While I don’t remember inboxing this album (I searched and found articles about it on two of my usual haunts, The Quietus and A Closer Listen), it proved to be exactly what I needed in a very hectic moment of my life.

The work here is ambient minimalism. However, while I’d use words like “close” or “claustrophobic” to describe a lot of that sort of music, this album feels very open somehow. The composer is inspired by nature and its gradual dissolution, and it shows through in the approach to the music. Even when the sounds and textures are heavy and unrelenting, the openness is still there, a space stays open above the tense ground being covered. It’s hard to explain, but a close listen at a decent volume will show you what I mean.

The pieces develop slowly over many minutes, and new details emerge and fade out again. It can be hard to keep your head around what’s going on, and I found myself having to refocus several times. It’s a record that really rewards your attention.

Tracks I Liked:

Against All Tenderness Of Eyes - starts out so minimally that you almost can’t track it. The emerging thrum of the beat intrudes and eventually demands your attention. That gets overlaid with something that sounds a bit like crickets, and then eventually the multiple textures and tempos blend together.

For The Application Of Fire - This one is a little more tonal, but has a similar slowly building approach. Slow and powerful, but somehow not morose.