Sound alchemist trio KILN creates a vivid pastoral tapestry with their latest release meadow:watt on the Ghostly International label. Drawing from an amalgam of soundscapes, the album is dream-inducing, ambient, and entrancing. Associative music, like this, does connote a half-conscious wandering. These sounds are familiar, innate, yet thwarted and off-kilter, much like recognizing someone in a dream who you know to be your friend and you can't recognize her features. meadow:watt evokes a poignant, abstract reverie that surely taps into the subconscious phase.
I imagine Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, and Clark Rehberg III are like lepidopterologists, or paranormal investigators, hunting down the fleeting presence of an almost extinct butterfly or the ancient Egyptian pharaoah Tutankhamun's spirit. Once found, they capture, record, and log their findings into an extensive catalogue of clippings. This is definitely the approach I see with the subject of a meadow, and certainly the idyllic presence is heard within the filters of these tracks.
The two opening tracks, "Roil" and "Pinemarten," are crisp, acoustical scores panning out into a dense groove. "Roil" whips drums that are marinating in shakers while "Pinemarten" introduces the first presence of the sonorous woodwind flute crooning by. Hollow drums kick-pulse as a cicada trills, a deep acoustic bass purrs and euphoric guitars laze over. As initial tracks for the entire soundscape, they bring in the warm tones apparent throughout. The way the recording translates through headphones begs for a larger sound, and I can see this album living up to its greatness in a sonic-proof room that allows each wavelength to wash over the body's senses.
"Star.field" opens with a scraping, side-ways bass line that is seismic, lop-sided and lagging, only to be saved by dub flowers. The effect is chemistry-altering, and the cells of the track sound as if they are entering mitosis, dividing slowly into their own being. "Willowbrux" serves as the key conceptual piece to the LP, with whispering organs and hollowed tube puffs consistently supporting a most pleasant piano. Static radio waves give fuzzy support and the feeling as if we are laying in a field wasting away the hours in radiant sunlight.
Across the meadow, there are creatures that lurk and tussle between bushes. "Kopperkosmo" and "Moth and Moon" spur visions of bog frogs and delicate moths fluttering on wool. "Kopperkosmo" begins with guttural vibes and looped ticker tape clicks. This feels as if the sounds are recorded from a distance across the room, as it spreads out almost too thin. "Moth and Moon" glides by, a timpani drum kit softly pulses as spritzes of feedback whiz on. The sensual energy is tamed within the frames of this energetic work. A sultry, crackling hazy guitar brings in the seductive lip biting sway felt here.
"Jux" is the shortest piece on the LP running at almost four minutes of consistent thumping overladen in auric flutes. This brushes up the last two tracks nicely as a quick trip. With "Acre" and "Boro" the components from the beginning of the album resurface. "Acre" climbs with hip-hoppity bass lines and percussion reminiscent of twigs rubbing against each other. It's a plush pillow, a velvety sound bed for us to almost lay our heads. "Boro" revives the quavering flute player that leads us out of this hypnotic trance. A sylvan clarinet whimpers toward the final note into consciousness.
As a whole, this experimental list is cohesive and beautiful. Each song hits the same musical vein, and that might be this LP's crack in the armor. While it is a masterpiece, what lacked is an exploration of a darker nature, or even a hint of the dangerous. Not every meadow is ideal.
Grade: B-
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