(2021) Frore & Shane Morris - Horizon
Review:
It would be hard to better Horizon as a choice of album title for this third Spotted Peccary album by Frore (Paul Casper) and Shane Morris, and it takes but a single listen to understand why. Its five long-form tracks merge the earthiness of tribal percussion instruments with the spaciness of synthesizer textures to create an organic-electronic fusion that matches precisely what a horizon is: the meeting-point between earth and sky. Adding to the two dimensions are acoustic and electric instruments such as Navajo flute and ambient guitar. The horizon concept not only pertains in a physical sense but temporally too, with Casper himself accurately characterizing Horizon as a blend of “past and present, ancient and future.” The hour-long release, which perpetuates the stars-spanning perspective of the duo’s earlier releases Blood Moon and Eclipse, functions as something of a gathering place for artists sharing their sensibilities. Whereas two pieces are pure Frore and Morris collaborations, the others include separate contributions from Mark Seelig (Indian Bansuri flute), Byron Metcalf (frame drum), and Dirk Serries (guitar). In all five pieces, Morris handles the percussion end of things, while Casper augments digital and analog synths with samples, drum machines, flutes (Overtone, Navajo, Aztec Death), and Bass Ocarina. Emerging from a mist-cloaked swirl, “The Eye of Everything” inaugurates the album with sweeping synthetic washes until frame drums and shakers enter to propel the material insistently forward. Organ-like tones gleam resplendently as the pulse percolates determinedly alongside, with all elements blending to form an ethereal vista. In contrast to the foreboding drama of the opening piece, “Agape” opts for a more restful kind of opiated drift when Seelig’s Bansuri pairs with kudus and bells for a meditation not far removed from a prototypical Fourth World piece by Jon Hassell. Animated tabla-like patterns jumpstart “Woven,” after which the incrementally swelling sound design expands to include percolating synthesizers and engulfing washes. In the album’s least percussion-driven setting, the ambient meditation “Lost in Wonder” differentiates itself from the others in featuring crystalline guitar shadings from Serries. With Metcalf’s frame drum added to Morris’s kudus, chain gong, and rain stick, the sixteen-minute closer “Ocean of Fire” powers the synthesizer elements with a stomping bottom end that builds to an intense, hot-wired climax. To a large degree, the album’s five settings register as atmospheric mood pieces less grounded in melody than rhythm; they also often exude the feel of live improvs. That’s exactly as it should be, however: no one should come to a Frore and Shane Morris collaboration anticipating three-minute radio fare. These panoramic soundscapes are exactly the kind of epic organic-electronic productions one would expect the duo to create.
Track Listing:
1.The Eye of Everything 12:09
2.Agape 10:57
3.Woven 12:47
4.Lost in Wonder 08:56
5.Ocean of Fire 16:34
Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
