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Whirling through the halls like a wild wind Behind the Sky (60'54") offers the listener relief from the plight of The World. In the Branches + Bluetech ask nothing more than our quiet attention, as unpredictable swerves and drifts of their conversation apply logic to sonic symbols. Dedicated electronic tinkerers Shane Cotee and Evan Bartholomew work through their influences to achieve an uncanny directness. A realization for large forces Behind the Sky offers seven scenes of a vital analytic gravity. Thanks to the musicians' subtly heightened, fiercely focussed energies, this album advances, not at the speed you would expect of space travel, but at a rate determined by the motion of atmospheric fronts. Each section is quite distinct, moving each into its own collective texture. Sounds are quietly yet forcefully flung at the listener. In a rush of darkness, thoughts dissolve into a waking prayer - each track a moment of authentic inner expression. Round synthesizer tones form consonant melodies, slowly praising the beautiful unknown. Cycling notes echo through reverberation, uncoiling over cloud covered landmarks - as spare guitar strings ring under heavens lit by stars. Masses swell and expand then recede into less reckless zones. Conductive to thinking, Behind the Sky is yet excitingly alive. In an outflow of music there must be something more than what is called force. There must too be distinction, and a rarity of feeling. Waiting for a sign in the sky, or a word from the stars, Cotee and Bartholomew express the soft fire of collaborative moments, and the elation of transcendence between the terrestrial and the interstellar.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 19 July 2018 |
