Corben - Whose Echoes Live In Memory (2021)

Canadian artist CORBEN has been very busy of late. Whether releasing full length solo albums on Pacific Rhythm and Shimmering Moods, recording with Vancouver duos Druzy and Source Amnesia, producing original soundtrack work for the NFB and Vice TV, or flat out stealing the show on our recent compilation 'The Same River Twice', we seriously wonder when he has time to sleep.

Recorded on a Tascam 4-track in early 2020, 'Whose Echoes Live In Memory' is a collection of shimmering analog pieces in the meditative tradition of Kosmische pioneers Popol Vuh, Cluster, and Roedelius. Beginning with the quasi-spiritual immersion of 'Shadows Wake', the album proceeds leisurely through a series of changing environments, the lush mellotron fields of 'Lester' giving way to the Morriconesque desert of 'This Too Shall Pass' and slowly dimming ocean of 'Sunset Over Avalon'. On 'Basho', what sounds like the ghost of legendary American guitarist Robbie Basho moves briefly across the face of the waters. When placed next to the predictably bland reverb washes of much contemporary ambient, CORBEN’s work sounds pointedly musical and self assured.