Emergent Slow Arcs

Scottish artist and musician Tommy Perman disassembled chamber pop quartet Modern Studies' masterful 2018 full-length Welcome Strangers and transformed it into something its creators were most likely not anticipating. Emergent Slow Arcs is like the electrified ghost of Welcome Strangers -- a few traces of guitar drones and strings are present from the original, but they're encapsulated in fog and diced up, forming new rhythms which stutter and dance. Gone are the original's lush harmonies and brass arrangements, as well as its rootsy sophistication and homey feel. Essentially, there's no point in comparing Emergent Slow Arcs to Welcome Strangers because it is a separate entity, even if it shares the same source material. Taken on its own terms with fresh ears, Emergent Slow Arcs is a mysterious, frequently fascinating ambient techno record which shimmers and shivers, occasionally breaking into spirited movement. "Faraway Hills" is anchored by a triplet beat that would've been at home on an older Kompakt release, and the samples are arranged in a way that almost makes it seem like Perman is playing a sampler like a dulcimer. The perfectly titled "Celestial Dance" is detached and ghostly but undeniably full of life, while the more tentative, glitchy "Moonshot" feels like it's going through more of a struggle to arrive at a sense of enlightenment. "Spectral Cannon" is appropriately filled with distant booms, as a tenuous rhythm flickers across the horizon. The album ends dramatically yet peacefully with "Sunup Shutdown," three minutes of slowly swelling strings which fade into the dawn, waving goodbye to the night. ~ Paul Simpson