Between Distant and Remote, the new LP from Amulets, descends like a hazy half-thought. A tonal comparison can be drawn between this LP and the iconic opening of Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Its melodies slope gently from fog like mountainsides, their substructures smeared underneath. In its woozy timbre and construction, it recalls Popol Vuh's beautiful soundtrack work. Between Distant and Remote stumbles from the sump of the past like Aguirre's caravan, heaving along packs of analogue mugginess.
There is some of the DNA of Fennesz in here, too; a sense of hope, of bright light. But as in Fennesz's Endless Summer, that hope carries a frightening twinge. Like pulling up a deck chair on a beautiful beach to watch the sun self-combust.
By coincidence, beaches crop up in the title of this LP's third track: 'Where the Land Meets the Sea'. Both delicate and powerful, this track functions like the meeting of elements that is its subject. Noise crashes in vast, but gentle waves, like when time eats a cliff. 'Nothing in the world is soft and weak as water. But when attacking the hard and strong, nothing can conquer so easily.'
No doubt one thing is clear: work this impressionistic is hard to explain. Hard, that is, without resorting to hackneyed metaphor, lazy comparison, or purple prose. All that can be offered is a sense of the album's tone and the emotions it conjures. In this case, the tone is one of immense and beautiful nostalgia. Between Distant and Remote is an elating release, too. It induces both longing and a gratitude for life; an awareness of how tremulous a thing we hold in ourselves, and hope for what's to come.
Between Distant and Remote, released on 25th of October, will be available for purchase and streaming here.
Words by Andrew O’Keefe