Various Artists - Filaments (Silver Threads)

 

Title: Filaments

Artist: V/A

Label: Silver Threads

Cat Number: STo4

Genre: Ambient

1 Blush Tide - Cate Francesca Brooks

2 Say More - Bea Brennan

3 Nangan Island - Ryan J Raffa

4 Between Voids - Jo Johnson

5 Hold, Together - Jo Johnson & Hilary Robinson

6 Trompos - Mareena

7 Let Them Out - Raica

8 Timeblind - Erika

9 Expectation - Ana Quiroga featuring Leilehua Lanzilotti

10 Entropy Remainder - C. Lavender

11 Silver Filaments Connecting Us All - Anthony Child

12 We Think a Spoon is a Saw - Loula Yorke

13 Mesmer - Polypores

‘Filaments’ is, as you can see, a various artists compilation on Silver Threads. We came across the label back in May on the occasion of Plant43 releasing ‘Spells For Warding Off Evil’. Now I feel with such a release that words are, to a large extent, more meaningless than they normal. An album like this is all about holistic reception, conception and connection. Right, waftle over. I believe that on an album such as this, sequence counts for a lot. With that in mind the listener is in for an undulating experience. Hardly a violent one though. Label head and album curator Jo Johnson makes two contributions in sequence: ‘Between voids’ and ‘Hold Together’ with Hilary Robinson. The former a delicate deconstructed, orchestral  piece the constituent parts of which have been scattered to the four winds.The latter feels like the prelude to something sinister, or its aftermath. iT feels like walking though empty rooms in a derelict mansion where only traces remain of its occupants. It’s. An album which alternates between darkness and light, but lives more within the shadows than the Sun. The repetition of  ‘Entropy Remainder’  by  C. Lavender

evokes a feeling of malfunction, Something that is immediately dispelled by Anthony Child’s ‘Silver Filaments Connecting Us All’, which isn’t the only piece that reminds me of seventies French electronica, another example being Raica’s ‘Let Them Out’. And it’s towards the album’s end that the machines feel a bit louder and more cohesive. The final two contributions: ‘We Think a Spoon is a Saw’ by- Loula Yorke, and ‘Mesmer’ by Polypores lean on each other to establish momentum. Firstly by gently unfolding and soundtracking the origins of life on Earth,, which leads into what feels like a kosmische piece of intense chug.