Pete Swinton - Dronebience Vol.1
Ok, let us be honest. I didn´t know who Pete Swinton was. For some reason ( or another ) I took him as another one of those... highly-productive noise artists. I don´t know if it was the cover artwork itself, or just the color of his Bandcamp site. But then I took a look at his portrait photo, and then I got intrigued. A mysterious elderly chap with an almost kind of... Irish elf looks at him. It raised my curiosity, so I began surfing through his numerous Bandcamp releases.
I loved the cover artwork for the Dronebience Vol.1, and I loved the first 10 seconds of the first track as well. So that is how I picked this one out. The photo of Pete Swinton and those first 10 seconds of Droncebience just made sense, we´re actually dealing with someone who... puts drops of hints of his soul here and there... within the recordings itself. He is a hidden treasure, what can I say?.
The whole thing has been recorded (and made) this year, in Indonesia. 12 tracks, about 60 minutes total in length. Only available by digital means via Pete Swinton's official Bandcamp site (Link Below).
The first track B5 - One. Includes humming machine drones and dreamy synths. Floating over the city in Blade Runner. Very hypnotizing and seductive at the same time, and the sound quality is great.
The second track B5 - Two continues the humming sensation, just not as heavy as the former track. The levitating sensation is more obvious here. I love the way how things are in the background, almost sounds like some sort of church organ. Time is slowing down at this moment... I mean really!.
The third track Drone One, makes you think of the cover artwork. Something being abandoned, and being left to its own device. Notice how the tree grows through the car itself, then try to imagine how much time a thing like that would require. The drone´ish church-like organs continue here with some excellent static drones. Exquisite material here kids!. So far, the drones are living and breathing things of sound. Not as static as you can imagine!
Drone Two being the fourth track, makes me think of Boards of Canada. A semi-high pitched drone of melancholic and nostalgic attributes is there, with some interesting ritualistic undercurrents in there as well. So far I am in bloody heaven. Feels as if someone is opening a door to their world, and you can enter without any form of payment. It feels real and very sincere from the artist himself... so far.
The fifth track is called Unruly Strings. Heavenly droned and multi-layered string sounds and angelic moods. Kind of reminds me of Swans in a way, one of those "pleasant" drone pieces from their Soundtracks of the Blind era.
Ambient 3 is the sixth track, a track that enters a more kind of mellow sound. A multi-layered looped and reverbed synth-wall, with some stuff happening behind it... if you dare crawl up the wall and look what there is behind it. ´Endless shores and green pastures... as far as the eye can see.´ One point to Gandalf!
Ambient 4 reminds me of old-fashioned telephones, when you picked up the receiver and put it to your ear... it just gives you that one specific sound. Then try to imagine that sound through your stereo! Pleasant static stuff, an ambient wall without noise here!
The eight-track The Spectral Gate sounds like something from an older episode of Doctor Who. The track works like a gate, with a gatekeeper asking ´Are you willing to go no?´... And the answer to that question would be...´Offcours I bloody will!.´
The ninth track is Dreamscape One. Imagine a deep cave with crystals, and then imagine how the moment of the earth would affect those crystals, in the sound which they would produce. Still good ambient music!
Droneambience Two starts with a humming sound from outer space. Love the metallic (and hidden) reverbed sounds in there as well. Very kind of early Klaus Schulze here, heavy cosmic stuff going on here.
The eleventh track Nightmare one... works as a sort of... parallel universe to the former track. Heavier drone to start with, eerie glitchy sounds some synth sounds. Weird and metallic sounds from a alien world creep in... and start repeating themselves. Not actually the journey which a certain character made in Lovecraft´s ´Whisperer In The Darkness, but more of a journey to another world that started as a nightmare but... ended as something quite else. Very surreal kind of adventurous track here kids.
The very last track is simply called Dronebience (1). A flanged and psychedelic intro with some highly echoed sounds in there as well. Still maintaining the sound (and aesthetic) that we have already heard on the first track! Again, Pete manages to make the sounds sound like something which is living and breathing. It does sound sincere, no doubt about it.
Dronebience Vol.1 might just be another indie-ambient album. But we´re still dealing with someone who does something extra to the ambient style, and that is the ability to reach beyond. Pete Swinton is an astronaut, who does have a desire to reach beyond... and he pulls it off... totally with Dronebience Vol.1. Need to drop in and drop out, do it with the company with Pete!
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