Loscil announces new record, Clara, out on May 28th via Kranky

The latest collection of sounds by Cascadian resident Loscil, also known as Scott Morgan, has been unveiled and is a stunning meditation on light, shade, and decay, sourced from a single three-minute composition performed by a 22-piece string orchestra in Budapest. The subsequent recording was lathe-cut on to a 7-inch, then “scratched and abused to add texture and colour”, from which the entirety of Clara was sampled, shape-shifted, and sculpted. Despite their perceived limited sonic palette, the compositions heard throughout Clara summon a sense of the infinite, swelling and swimming through luminous depths. Certain tracks percolate over narcoleptic metronomes while others slowdive in shimmering shadowplay, sounding at times like some noir music of the spheres. Below you can hear on of those tracks, entitled “Vespera”.

Although Morgan’s compositional premise for Clara was quite defined, the resultant work is wonderfully opaque and spatial, equal parts lush and lurking, traced in fine-grained gradients and radiant silences. The album’s title comes from the Latin for ‘bright’ – a fitting muse for this masterpiece of celestial electric currents and interstitial ether, where “shadows are amplified and bright spots dimmed”.

Clara will be released on May 28th via Kranky. Physical and digital pre-orders are available here.

 

Photo credit: Ben Didier