Continuing a collaboration that began with an EP to raise money to support relief efforts following an earthquake that struck Japan earlier this year, Akira Kosemura and Lawrence English have just released their first full length album together. Taking its name from the goddess who personifies the moon in Greek mythology, Selene finds these two highly accomplished artists expanding upon the alchemy they concocted on Memorizing the Sea / From Upon the Soil in a sonic quest to express the “lingering desire for that which sits beyond” and offer “a speculative hymn to the visions of the celestial zones that spill ever outward”.
Kosemura, of course, is a prolific Tokyo-based composer & pianist who has created music for film, stage, television, games, and commercials in addition to his own solo recordings and managing Schole Records while English, based in Brisbane, is one the luminaries of the ambient scene as a recording artist, live performer, and curator of the Room40 label. The music they have made together becomes a mesmerizing liminal space that hovers between the expressiveness of compositional forms and the elusive abstractions of ambient experimentation.
The title of the new record evokes the name and persona of a figure from the mythological past by design, but the focal point of Selene is not confined to history, nor does it dwell on legend or arcane mysticism. Rather it draws inspiration from what she can be seen to symbolize – a shared human experience and “a promise of light and brightness in the darkest moments”.
There is a potent visual dimension to Selene as well which comes from Chilean filmmaker & photographer Malena Szlam which can be seen in the cover art and, most especially, in the video she created for “Thela”, the album’s third track. With footage of a lunar eclipse filmed in Valle del Elqui and the sand and moon filmed in Australia’s Butchulla country, the 16mm film blends visions of heavenly wonder from two very different perspective into a single abstract experience.
The pieces are also an acknowledgement of shared histories and cultural preoccupations. They speak to the longitudinal fascinations that have guided us, on this planet. This recording ties into a linage that reaches back, while stretching forward. It is just one story of so many, told across places, across cultures, across generations.
It seemed especially apt to read the album notes speaking of people experiencing the same heavenly phenomena from widely varied locations and perspectives on the very day after a geomagnetic storm held a vast part of the world in the thrall of a magnificent aurora. Wondering at the heavens is as old as humankind and the point is well taken that what is in the realm of our collective imagination has only grown with as what can be seen by the naked eye has been extended by technology and the visions of writers and filmmakers. In essence, Selene is an abstract musical reflection on these shared experiences across time and space, and quite a beautiful one at that.
Selene is available from Temporary Residence Ltd. on CD, digital, and two limited vinyl editions – black and cloudy white. The album was mastered by Stephan Mathieu and features cover photography by Malena Szlam.
Links: Bandcamp | Temporary Residence | Akira Kosemura | Lawrence English
Stationary Travels 