The world is a mysterious halo hovering around a library of sound fragments and interconnected ideas on Architectures of Light. Bill Seaman and Stephen Spera are no strangers to the wonder that sound can create, but together a timeless spirit lifts a free-flowing river of elegant tones skyward where it can breathe. Textures become narratives. The story never quite ends.
Each song is a piece of this larger structure towering in the distance, gently encircled by aural clouds and prismatic light. As sections fall into place, the expanse takes shape. “Voix De Lumiere” ripples through the basement, fuzz scowling at the angelic lift of hollow voices. Melancholy saturates the chords peaking out from a pile of sonic debris, but forward progression arrives in the form of echoes and granular movement. Tamalyn Miller’s wordless vocals on “Rooms Reflect” hold midnight field recordings at arm’s length, instead opting to cast starlit shadows against the moon. Emotive drones fade into the backdrop to become ever-shifting shapes where new languages are written.
There is so much detail on Architectures of Light that makes the whole album feel like a living organism. Synthesizer sequences loop around crystalline punctuations on “Infinity Folds,” opening an incision within the lilting auricular fabric. Rain soaks the arrangement in cool, resonant tones where piano keys become gilded playgrounds for sentimental memories. Reflections from the past spiral out from a soft core in the shimmer of “Heraclitus and the River.” Glassine tones float weightlessly above aqueous vibrations to keep the gate open for our passage through.
Seaman and Spera create beautiful, intricate spaces for exploration and for rest. In the closing tracks, “Dusk Till Dawn” and “Tswana Dreaming,” the world opens and possibilities unfold. Grace is tenuous, but the moment is seized on Architectures of Light as two artists build something exceptional and new.
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