Mick Chillage - Tides Of Melancholy (2022)

“Tides Of Melancholy” will be released just on the first anniversary of Before & After Silence Recordings in early January 2022 and it will be the sixth CD on the label. The album consists of five Ambient pieces of varying lengths, three of which were composed in 2021.

The three pieces I composed in 2021 seemed to fit within a particular emotive narrative and sonic aesthetic. I saw a connection with the piece “Footsteps In Fog '' track three which I had written after the passing of Harold Budd in 2020, strangely at the time of writing the piece I felt it could possibly be part of an album at some point.

Track one “Submerged Cathedrals” came about rather quickly, some sonic experimentation led me to an almost human-like tonal quality that I played on the keys. This inspired me, adding more keys, piano, strings and deeper synths. The track conveys a mournful feel, like a once beautiful structure that is vividly remembered but is now lost forever in deep murky waters and its haunting sentiments sets the tone of the album.

Track Two “One Sanguine Day” seems to shift between a certain sombre tone and shifts with moments that shimmer with light and a sense of hope.

The title track “Tides Of Melancholy” feels like a soundtrack to a series of filmic snapshots from deep within a melancholic state of mind as it slowly builds and shifts to a layered tapestry of emotive tone and colour.

The closing-piece “Arc Of Light” was originally Written and recorded in late 2019. It’s somewhat Electro-Acoustic, Neoclassical and subtle synthesised elements with the eventual emergence of a jazz influenced rhythm and bass combo lifts the track almost as if the melancholic state of mind Has subsided and finishes the theme and concept of the album
In a fitting way.