Troth - Small Movements in Radiance (2021)

The latest by deep listening duo Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman aka Troth exists in the outer reaches of open air ritual and crouched quietude, born of the seclusion and slanted sunlight of their garden-shrouded shed studio in Newcastle, Australia. True to its title, Small Movements In Radiance unfolds gently and luminously, hushed ceremonies of haze, harp, glockenspiel, tuned metal, and field recordings, variously inspired by “sublime bushwalks in the Blue Mountains,” sonic sleep aids, and the notion of “ambient music for children.”

There's a uniquely ageless, sacred feel to the album's five pieces, lulling but liminal, alluring resonances heard faintly from distant hillsides. Elements interweave across long, opaque arcs, then elusively re-isolate in stark tableaus of hiss and absence. Bowman cites a desire to resist “a world inhabited by far too many negative forces,” which these vulnerable but veiled environments softly do – carving out fragile terrain for escape, reflection, or renewal.