{"product_id":"a-thread-silvered-and-trembling","title":"A Thread, Silvered and Trembling","description":"\u003cp\u003eScottish experimental\/electronic musician Drew McDowall’s lifelong interest\nin an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been\nan inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil’s legendary \u003ci\u003eTime\nMachines\u003c\/i\u003e). This form, often traditionally used for laments and for tributes to\nthe dead, fuses modal drones with flickering dissonance and plaintive melody\nevoking an ancient, solemn mood.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis latest work, \u003ci\u003eA Thread, Silvered and Trembling\u003c\/i\u003e, both incorporates and\ntransforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an\nelectro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices, alternately\ndisembodied and displaced. Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at\nCircular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn, the collection’s four pieces capture\nMcDowall at his most elevated and elusive, in thrall to \"the ineffable – that\nwhich refuses to be spoken.\"\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMcDowall’s palette here is unusually eclectic, sourced from a dynamic\norchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold and comprised of cello, viola,\nviolin, harp (Marilu Donovan of Leya), and french horn. Ebbing between\nshrouded electronics and enigmatic, sometimes spectralist orchestration, the\nalbum moves with a seething, simmering energy, surging into elegant, uneasy\ncrescendos. The first two pieces are inspired by a liberatory hijacking and\ninversion of a grim biblical story (and by a cryptic and strange UK simple\nsyrup branding). Opener \"Out of Strength Comes Sweetness\" shivers with\nshort echo and resonant pads, before shifting into the album’s centerpiece:\nthe 14-minute saga \"And Lions Will Sing with Joy.\" A murmuring electrical\nstorm of keening strings and disorienting drones gradually grows darker and\ndenser, until suddenly there’s a crack in the clouds, revealing mutated choral\nvoices and sparkling harp. McDowall describes the track as \"an incantation to\nhelp usher in a break, and a new beginning.\"\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe record’s latter half evokes a deep untamed animism shot through with\nspiraling radiance. \"In Wound and Water\" sways with harp, plucked strings\nand eerie cello undertows while lush layers of disorientated electronics hang\nin the dusk. There is no resolution, only a faint gradient of fragile dissipation,\nleading into the album’s harrowing and climactic closer, \"A Dream of a\nCartographic Membrane Dissolves.\" Processed voices (credited on the liner\nnotes to \"The Ghosts Who Refuse to Rest\") contort, whisper, and gather as\nthe rest of the ensemble sharpens, poising to strike. Then it does – grand,\ntragic stabs of strings and horns lashing the sky, storming heaven by force.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fallout is poetic and inevitable, raining embers into a dark sea. But the\njourney and catharsis of A Thread linger long after it goes silent. Like so much\nof McDowall’s multifaceted catalog, this is music of immanence and alchemy,\nattuned equally to the sacred and the profane, to the tile and the mosaic.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Kali Malone, Coil (late 90s), Laurel Halo, Actress, Ryuichi\nSakamoto and alva noto, Tim Hecker, Hiro Kone, Caterina Barbieri, LEYA\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dais","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50423664247115,"sku":"2192161","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Red LP","offer_id":50423665230155,"sku":"2192162","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/A_Thread_Silvered_and_Trembling_08b79547_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726770654","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/products\/a-thread-silvered-and-trembling","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}