Melting Pillars of Snow

XKatedral presents a new full-length from label co-founder Maria W Horn. Melting Pillars of Snow gathers new compositions for contrabass recorder, shō, percussion, electric guitar, voice and electronics, performed by Horn with Anna Petrini, Mattias Hållsten, Magdalena Meitzner and Mats Erlandsson.

There’s also narration from Horn and a guest appearance by Michael Gira on lead single Scythe of Saturn. The album draws on The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald, tracing time, memory and shifting landscape along the Suffolk coast.

It’s Horn’s most expansive instrumentarium yet: overtone triangle, dubachi, timpani, tam-tam, pitched wine glasses and bowed crotales, alongside customized algorithmic synthesis and processing. Petrini’s contrabass recorder, Hållsten’s shō and Erlandsson’s electric and acoustic guitars move between strict structures, spectral detail, drones and feedback.