Going into hibernation during these long cold nights, Laica hears a faint Crystal Echo.

2012 has really been a good year for slow almost motionless music, and right now almost nothing makes a much sense as Svalbard’s stunning Crystal Echo. An album that does not rush, but strides purposefully as if it understands its own magnificence.

The album’s deep treacly chords are so deep it sounds like you are hearing music being played from the inside of a submarine whilst you watch the world from the bottom of a deep ocean, silent on the ocean bed.

Its beautifully unhurried right up until part two of the triptych at the centre of the album; when Soundscape 2 jolts you back to the surface with a wayward signal that soon gets lost within the murk and allows you once again to rest.

Orchestral Loop brings the most clarity, almost like a tiny ray of sunlight penetrating the oceans surface, reminiscent of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops, but coming from an entirely alien world.

Album closer LY26 Part 2 has a low bass pulse that is like a radar signal that has travelled through all of space and time to you and you alone; and hiding at the bottom of the ocean seems to be the best place to receive its ancient message

Grab

–
Svalbard – LY-26 Part 1
Svalbard – Crystal Echo
Svalbard – Cocoon
Svalbard – Svalbard 2
Svalbard – Soundscape 1
Svalbard – Soundscape 2
Svalbard – Soundscape 3
Svalbard – Orchestral Loop
Svalbard – The Unexplored Seas Of Space
Svalbard – LY-26 Part 2
DBR 008