Cloudland Canyon, Lie In Light
Featured Album
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating in space.
If the nod-and-wink title "Krautwerk" wasn't a big enough clue, the album opener's deployment of shortwave radio frequencies and bands of ever-present, fluctuating drones should leave no doubts surrounding Cloudland Canyon's methodology. By the time the squiggles of jam-session guitar and hypnotic bass cut in, the aural senses are being thoroughly bombarded — and that's before the Teutonic chanting strikes up.
Collaborative duo Simon Wojan and Kip Uhlhorn have absorbed and re-shaped their '70s influences to create a set of dreamy, undulating soundscapes. It's tempting to dip straight into a collection of oceanic imagery or intergalactic metaphors to describe their approach, and indeed there are moments where otherworldly overtones are impossible to ignore. The use of theremin throughout "White Woman" provides a typically sci-fi vibe, as do the rotating electronics on the amusingly named "Scheisse, Schatzi, Auf Wiedersehen!," which are akin to an investigative flyby from a squadron of flying saucers. Yet it's the skillful manipulation of distinctly earthen feedback — particularly on title track "Lie in Light" — which truly engages mind and body, providing beauty through chaos in a fashion reminiscent of zero-tempo shoegazers.
Elsewhere, the repeated appearance of transmission-style loops feel symbolic of exploratory communications being emitted into the atmosphere. This affords the engrossing layers of instrumentation a crucial sense of expansion, where otherwise they may have become stifling. As the churning groove of "Mothlight Part 1" closes with the intonation that "sometimes it's hard to come home again," it seems clear that Cloudland Canyon's trip is not one of self-absorption, but of continual travel and distance; through the vast, open plains of low-pitched static and far beyond.
