James Ginzburg - Crystallise, a Frozen Eye (2021)

Emptyset's james ginzburg grapples with dense Celtic drone on this gargantuan deep listening tome. Think Catherine Christer-Hennix, Ellen Arkbro or Laraaji, but lost somewhere chilly in the Scottish highlands.

On 2018's 'six correlations', the Subtext boss and bass music veteran set his sights on Gaelic folk music, using electronic and acoustic instruments to reflect his heritage and build those sounds into something completely new. ginzburg revisits the concept on 'crystallise, a frozen eye', fleshing out his meditations using instruments such as the Appalachian dulcimer, the psaltry, the shruti box and a special drum custom made for Emptyset's "Borders" album.

These luscious acoustic sounds are arranged into rich orchestrations, elevated by ginzburg's engineering prowess, and widened with thick bass tones from his trusty Octave Cat synthesizer. That instrument might be best known around these parts for forming the memorable riff on Joker and Ginz's 'Purple City', but here it's used to create a low-end rumble that's more comparable to Sunn O))) or ELEH.

On opener 'light evaporates', gut-churning bass anchors a flutter of airy strings that combs across the pineal gland with pleasing ASMR softness. 'the eyes, behind' sounds like Laraaji's most off-world dulcimer experiments being stretched like a drum skin over a creaking wooden frame. ginzburg's music creates a magical universe that's out of time, part historical and part completely contemporary; 'a gate left open disappeared' is a prime example of this, with twinkling strings that sound like faery dust being blown into a collapsing wormhole.