Broken Harbour - Gramophone Transmissions

I am always pleased when I see the artists develop their own sound during their career. Being stuck on some specific level doesn't make any good for anyone. I like to hear the transformation or at least the efforts for transformation. But I much more pleased to hear when the artist makes some progress and steps forward in exploring new boundaries of own creativity. Here I have the last album of Canadian resident Blake Gibson which can be a great example of that kind of a progress. When reviewing his previous album dated around 2009, I had this feeling that told me: "Here is the guy who is able to create something special". And as the time passed I can be sure today that I wasn't mistaken about him.

'Gramophone Transmissions' is the name that totally reflects the stuffing of the package while it was created around the scratching sound of an old vinyl. This kind of sound always associated to me with some gentle passion and a slight touch of nostalgia. In his second album Blake invites us to dive into the atmosphere of ruined civilization and nuclear holocaust, when the music fully created by non-synth sampled loops and drones. The opening track "Drift" welcomes us with a light, almost heavenly new age piano and orchestra structures, and truly drift it is with a soft touch of the wind and a worm stream of the sea. While drifting on the waves of sound, we arrive towards the second composition; "The Ballad of Dave Bowman pt.1" which grabs us into its gentle hands of the light atmosphere, where the time doesn't exists. Space continuum stops as soon as we transmitted into the second part of the same named track, base totally on the dense organ loops and the same light structures, guiding to the oblivion of ever existing memories. Nothing remains, everything drifts away, one can stop moving and breathing, because the sound of the ballad is the sound of the universe, where the human aspirations, ambitions, deeds and desires simply mean nothing compared to the wideness of neverending existence. Our journey comes towards "Titan", the biggest Saturn satellite, and due to that the music becomes darker and more static to open the second part of the album. The tracks transform to be gloomier with depressing atmosphere which doesn't lack its mysticism, becoming more and more hypnotic and even meditative as soon as we travel towards the very end.

As the result of the journey I can clearly state that Blake made a huge progress since his first efforts through the album 'Broken Harbour'. Once again, the second part of the cd loses a little bit of the power, amassed from the opening. But still remaining atmospheric, music kept me sank inside its ambience to bring one huge piece of entertainment. Way to go Blake and hope to hear from you more compositions in the future brought from a frozen and chilly part of the globe. Nov 08 2011