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collapse.

by Occulting Light

supported by
Chris Spalton
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jim byatt
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cascadethunders
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  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Limited edition cassette version of the 'collapse.' album. 68 minutes of music with handmade, recycled card insert. First run of 25 on baby blue cassettes in a clear and white case.

    Includes unlimited streaming of collapse. via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Turn To Glass 07:37
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2.
False Pattern 05 (Pareidolia) 04:58
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3.
(Subdermal) 02:01
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4.
Watermark 05:02
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5.
Parasites Of The Monoculture 06:11
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6.
(Thorns From Leaves) 04:20
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7.
Zero Reference 06:27
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8.
Memory Decay (Storm) 05:28
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9.
The Loss Of Meaning Previously Assigned To Seemingly Key Events 06:13
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10.
Game & Metagame 05:32
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11.
Narrative Deconstruction 03:20
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12.
Nothing Grows There 04:45
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13.
People Are Gone 06:40
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about

“Themes coalesced from the combination of a few things. I read a piece by David Roth that played with the metaphor of the current wave of populist politics and fake news as a separate reality: a ‘gilded funhouse’ into which many have entered and are now fully invested in its thrall, and that those people are ‘gone’, never to return. This struck a real chord with me and was, I guess, filtered through the prism of the dystopian writing and films that I’ve loved most of my life, particularly in this case things like The Quiet Earth, Night Of The Comet and The Leftovers. I started to imagine stepping towards a more literal interpretation of those people leaving us for their new reality, in some slow-motion rapture, leaving a more empty world and the question of what happens for those of us who remain? What are we left with? What have we learned? Can we reconcile what has happened, and maybe build something better?

This concept started to also started to juxtapose itself with thoughts and conversations I’d had about the more real loss of people I knew who had died over the last few years. One conversation in particular happened to align with the person I was talking to sending me a field recording they had made of a particularly violent storm - this seemed to connect to the ideas I was assembling, and the storm recording became a thread running through album, with the sound being used both directly and as the basis for several sample-based instruments and wavetable synths.

Around the same time, I’d been reading Timothy Snyder’s ‘The Road To Unfreedom’, and had been particularly struck by his ideas on the ‘politics of inevitability’ and their shift to the ‘politics of eternity’. Overlaid on to all of this were thoughts about how we communication, the limits of language and how these things set the framework for our culture, and can be manipulated to influence, divide or unite. These ideas, and the feeling of a ‘frozen now’ lacking both history and future, that they inspired in me, seemed to juxtapose with the other ideas for the record, and become part of its loose conceptual narrative.

I find it a little strange to talk in these terms of themes for a set of pieces of instrumental music, but these were the things that were in my head whilst I was writing, and definitely shaped the tone of the music, sometimes unconsciously, and at other points, in a more direct way. Ultimately, I think that’s what I love about writing music; you can take an idea, a concept, a feeling, and push it towards becoming a more literal image or story-telling element, without reaching the point of having it solidify into that thing and become obvious. It remains ethereal, fleeting layers of ideas moving over each other and aligning; hopefully sparking something in the listener, creating an imagine in their mind’s eye, taking them to a place or a configuration of emotions. Yeah; I think that’s why I do it.”

credits

released July 28, 2023

Matthew K. Grundy - synths, guitars, piano, violin, production
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Cloaked/ Studios, Nottingham
Artwork by Diecast Design

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Occulting Light Nottingham, UK

Drawing influence from techno, drone, noise and minimalism, Occulting Light’s sound has coalesced into dark, atmospheric soundscapes; sometimes harsh, other classically melodic; using sounds from synths, software, field recordings, coding and electronics, alongside layers of effected guitar improvisation and other classical instrumentation, always with the intent of evoking atmosphere and emotion. ... more

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