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Frore & Shane Morris — Horizon
(Spotted Peccary SPM-9089, 2021, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2021-10-28

Horizon Cover art

Horizon is the third collaboration between Frore (Paul Casper) and Shane Morris on the Spotted Peccary label, the earlier efforts being Blood Moon (2015) and Eclipse (2017), and this time they are joined by guitarist Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana), bansuri flutist Mark Seelig, and percussionist Byron Metcalf on one track each of the album’s five total, which all feature Casper on analog and digital modular synths, plus track depending, bass ocarinah, drones, overtone flute, guitar, fujara (a three-hole wooden flute), Navajo flute, Aztec death flute, and more, along with mixing and other elements of production. Morris handles various elements of percussion — frame drum, udus, bells, cymbals, talking drum, gongs, shakers, rain stick, and vibraphone. One might suspect from the instrumentation that the music herein would be deep tribal ambient, and that assumption would certainly be correct; the pieces shimmer and drift with tonal color, making for a rich and beautiful tapestry, while often accompanied by tribal rhythms or other percussives. The twelve-minute opener, “The Eye of Everything,” sets the stage, opening with a floating ambient drift that soon enough is joined by frame drum and shakers, first very subtle, then overt, after which mysterious cyclical drones join the mix to its conclusion. Seelig joins on bansuri for the second long composition, “Agape,” a dark and cinematic journey that bristles with emotion throughout its duration, while what almost seem like voices shimmer against a textural backdrop. “Woven” pits smooth droning synths against a more free-form percussive style, while “Lust in Wonder” is a dark elastic dreamscape joined by Serries on guitar while Morris contributes vibraphone and gongs to the proceedings. Byron Metcalf joins the duo from the side-long closer “Ocean of Fire,” where multiple layers of percussion intertwine as it proceeds through its powerful dreamlike encounter. Horizon merges power and beauty in an exquisite stew of tribal fusion.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Dirk Serries / Vidna Obmana / Fear Falls Burning, Byron Metcalf, Mark Seelig, Shane Morris, Frore (Paul Casper)

More info
http://frore-shanemorris.bandcamp.com/album/horizon

 

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