From the glacial post-rock soundscapes of Canvas (Polar Seas Recordings), Monuments (Sound in Silence) and Resolven (Polar Seas Recordings) to the sprawling drones of the more recent Departures series, Brad Deschamps & Mike Abercrombie have shown a willingness to change tack as they have navigated their North Atlantic Drift project over the years since their first release in 2012 even as they have developed their own solo projects, grown a record label, and scored films. Pillars will be the band’s seventh full-length record and the towering concrete arches on the cover herald yet another subtle evolution in their sound. The Brutalist motif with its colossal curved forms and silent defiance of chaos seems as fitting a symbol as any for the austere elegance of these weighty melancholic abstractions.
None of the tracks on Pillars are especially long, but even in its economies of expression that sense of glacial vastness and mournful reflection that the band has always been able to summon is very much present here. While the immersive cloud-shapes of “Dream Recall”, “Parapet”, and “Lost Years” hearken back to familiar territory, pieces like “Artifical Lakes”, “Monarch” and “Currents” introduce sleek new metallic textures to the mix as does the beautifully out-of-time “Astray” which you can preview here in this exclusive premiere.
Links: Polar Seas Recordings | North Atlantic Drift
Pillars will be available beginning January 10, 2020 on red vinyl LP as well as digital download & streaming and features cover photography by April Suen.
Stationary Travels 