Pascal Savy - Colour Fields (2018)

Dislocations are everywhere. Following 2014’s Adrift, less in aesthetic terms and more in its sequential order, Pascal Savy’s Dislocations is a ‘slow cancellation of the future’. Influenced by the writings of Mark Fisher, especially ‘Ghosts of My Life’, Dislocations is an unquiet world that’s been flipped upside-down, gone south, both a document of and ‘a pessimistic reflection on the subtle violence and disembodied force of “capitalist realism”’.

On top of that, a deep shifting like that of polar ice has occurred within the scope of the recording, taking into consideration Savy’s own personal dislocations. By peering into and exploring these dislocations, Savy has, in a strange paradox, made new connections within the music, inverting the whole concept and shining a direct beam upon what’s been broken; in doing so, he releases them back into their ghostly wildlands and dead zones.

Quakes and shudders occupy a pale, uneasy and queasy terrain. Skeletal, microscopic melodies emerge from an unknowable place, a place out of nowhere and a shadow out of time, scuttling unevenly under the glassy eye of a sharp observation and its powerful, all-seeing lens. A background, low-ended thumping and a quivering melody give rise to anxiety attacks, racing heartbeats, and the steep staccato of a stolen breath. Things are collapsing within. Things are out of whack. A sick person is in need of a doctor, and in a similar way these tones breed a toxic pathogen. It will need treating, but it remains to be seen if anyone’s able or willing to help.

‘Echoes of a Black Hole Eating a Star’ is ominous in the extreme, a piece which swims in the tinted amniotic fluid of the cosmos. Brighter colours have been sucked into an ever-growing vacuum, a malevolent, beating sac at the heart of the Universe, where a dark drone has taken up residency, devouring its surroundings. The exploration of and the deep dive into texture is a significant element in Savy’s music, and it’s a sharply-bladed knife on Dislocations. The crawling static is an incision into an already-thin melody.

Dislocations ends on a brighter note, feeling hopeful, if uncertain, about its future. One thing is for sure, though: Dislocations is one of 2018’s standout records. When things break, there’s a potential for healing, and when things are so glaringly wrong, there’s an opportunity to get back into sync.