""Along The Fringe Of Starlit Frost" moves Still Crescent into more melodious territory after the cold abstractions of the debut release "The Railway Terminus". Musically, the EP retains the sparseness and chill of the debut, carried along by distant almost indifferent percussion. In keeping with the best ambient music, Still Crescent's sound can be all enveloping or barely perceived, depending upon how the listener chooses to experience it. Listening to the five tracks can give the impression of time either being suspended or accelerating, their 25-minute duration appearing to pass in an instant. Listening at volume on headphones reveals the full intricacies and depth of these recordings.
Sébastien Wright, the man behind the Still Crescent moniker, cites a wide range of musical and non-musical influences including Eno and Fripp, Angelo Badalementi, Paul Auster, Sylvia Plath, Victorian ghost strories, and natural and industrial landscapes of South Yorkshire. The title of the EP is taken from a line in the Eden Philpotts poem 'December' and the influence of literature continues throughout the EP with references to W.H. Auden and Charlotte Brontë."
"REVIEW from boomkat.com:
More blissfully vaporous music from the increasingly excellent Make Mine Music imprint, this time from Sebastien Wright's Still Crescent project, which releases this EP as a second installment in a series of three. As the title would indicate, this EP is very much influenced by the stillness and crispness of winter, with much of this music characterised by a chilly absoluteness, combining soft drones with brittle crackling textures. 'The Sombre Spire' heralds a blurry mass of resonant, muted tones, an aesthetic probably best harnessed by 'Dreadful Martyrdom', a piece that tangles together what sounds like obscured field recordings, icy synths and an incredibly light beat pattern, all resulting in something that comes close to a more minimal take on the wispy sonic drifts of Xela's For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights. Another noteworthy highlight comes in the form of 'Loomis', another deep freeze ñ an auditory whiteout in which quivering Boards Of Canada synths gently guide the understated melody. Recommended."
credits
released May 12, 2008
Written and Record by Sébastien Wright, Sheffield, Winter 2007
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