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CD
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CSR 352CD
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Andrew Ostler continues his artistic evolution towards choral beauty, orchestral textures, ambient drones and low woodwind, into the realms of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Arvo Pärt, or Stars Of The Lid. Building on the string arrangements of his previous LP Dots On A Disk Of Snow, and taking a heavy dose of sax drone from an earlier album still, this record also adds a full choir, taking the music to another level of spiritual intensity. On the first three compositions the drones are, for the most part, relatively gentle, while chant-like choral arrangements drift and weave around and above them. "Affirmation" is quietly confident, with a surge of intensity around the midpoint; "Confession" is perhaps more tentative, the shifting canon of the voices threatened by a distant storm of distorted synth shredding; "Adoration" restores the straightforward choral beauty, building to an unashamed cadence. The immense final track "Meditation" is a quite different affair. Here the drones are more intense slabs, the choir is more demonstrative in its emotion, and the ultimate climax the more devastating for it. The journey is longer, but the rewards are greater for the committed. Originally released on Andrew Ostler's own Expert Sleepers label on limited edition blue vinyl, Cold Spring now press this gem onto CD for the first time.
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