Clara

Album review

Music, at its arguable core, is the harmonious union of sound and soul. Across generations of musical history, the tools of the trade to communicate the human experience have dramatically shifted (from gregorian harmonies to 808s, and now TikToks (!) to name a few). Sound designers and ambient composers, predominantly sensory individuals, generally rely on a more elemental set of musical tools. Loscil, aka Scott Morgan (a film/video game sound designer and prior collaborator in the rock outfit, Destroyer), creates sonic experiences anchored by an emotional affinity that inspires the serene but never touch stasis. On Clara (Latin for bright), Loscil manipulates dense atmospheric textures, pulsing melodic passages, and thoughtful, conceptual framing to evoke a space that bathes the listener in reflective soundscapes exploring the ever-changing nature of light and darkness. Truly a vibe.

Morgan—whose first release as Loscil came in 2001—has constructed an impressive body of work weaving brooding ruminations, visual artistry (through a collection of mesmerizing music videos), and reflections on cosmic-scale natural phenomena. The foundation for Clara is no different. Sourced from an uncredited three-minute-recording performed by a 22-piece string orchestra in Budapest, Morgan sliced, blemished, and stitched this anonymous recording throughout the 10-track collection. "The source material has not been revealed anywhere," Morgan told Qobuz. "[I] might [release it] eventually but not before the album comes out." The resulting record, which is wonderfully opaque, dark, and spatial, is accented by gleaming passages sampled from these orchestral tapes. On "Stella," cascading strings resolve stinging emotional tension before fading into a background of soft, bobbing bell tones. "Vespera" opens with a cantering hand-shaker-like shuffle which, before long, is engulfed from both audible sides with seismic synthesizers that only subside for a pocket for a stringed passage. It illuminates, and is audibly reminiscent of the first rays of sunrise. Final track "Clara" offers a proper closing with a nine-minute sonic bath of lush, encompassing sound before marching ever so gently into blissful blankness.

In all its equivocal sensations, Clara speaks the loudest in its softest moments. It requests a patient listener primed for a journey of heart and mind with ambient tools and textures front and center. In all its apparent emptiness, it offers delights numerously unfolding and infinitely mysterious. © William Card/Qobuz