*The Following Press Release Was Issued By Clandestine PR*
Watch and share Ghost Marrow’s stunning new video now
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Genres: ethereal wave, ambient, slowcore, drone, darkwave
RIYL: Christina Vantzou, Steve Roach, Juliana Barwick, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Richard Youngs’ River Through Howling Sky, the atmospheric side of Chelsea Wolfe and Tyler Bates’ X OST, Low, Tiny Vipers, vidnaObmana, Grouper
photo credit: Joshua Ford
still from “sung / conflict” video by Joshua Ford
photo credit: Joshua Ford
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Aurielle Zeitler‘s earth + death full-length –– the third under her Ghost Marrow moniker and her first for The Garrote –– is patently breathtaking.
From the record’s first dimly pulsing moments, the listener is led deep into an immeasurable dark. Warm synthesizer tones and Zeitler’s voice –– quiet, but disarmingly close, certain and soon harmonizing with itself –– sustains a promise of grandeur in those depths. On promises, earth + death plays like a full delivery on the promises made by the ethereal darkwave genre. But startlingly absent here are many of the things that in fact ground a lot of that music. Indeed, where bands like Black Tape for a Blue Girl or even This Mortal Coil offer some levity by working with a bit of camp or a lot of pop, Ghost Marrow opts for devastating depth and harrowing vulnerability. It’s the feeling of having no footing which is most impressive about this record. So earth + death shares common DNA with Richard Youngs‘ bleak and bewildering River Through Howling Sky and Tiny Viper‘s glacial masterpiece Life on Earth.
Zeitler’s patient command of atmospheric, shifting synthesizer tones –– which calls to mind the time-bending space music of Steve Roach and vidnaObmana –– and her intimately presented voice are the cornerstones of this work. At the intersection of these two elements is a sort of magic.
There’s an implication of science fiction here, an at times uncomfortable demand to face something that is made of breath and flesh, but also machine. earth + death is somehow entirely about the ghost of the process, the imprint made and it is easy to lose focus on the provenance of the sounds.
In describing this record, it might be just as valuable to describe the color of the sky just before dawn, just before the black relents, as to talk about what synthesizers or guitars Zeitler uses, or what her influences are. Among the latter, she counts the films of Sky Hopinka and, unsurprisingly, Tarkovsky’s Stalker. But unlike the torturously painstaking work of Tarkovsky, Zeitler’s process in making earth + death was remarkably free and even swift. Juno-60 improvisations, first takes in each song’s case, became the bedrock. Zeitler then began layering, finishing each piece quickly, instinctually. It is remarkable, considering the results, which in fact, feel far from improvisational. Creating earth + death, Zeitler says, “was about liberation of my heart, for lack of a better term and seeing if something musical would arrive without my intellect complicating the process.”
This is, perhaps, over and against years of experience playing music in much more rehearsed settings, for example as Chelsea Wolfe’s touring lead guitarist during the Abyss album cycle or singing on tracks for Tera Melos, Emma Ruth Rundle; Alister Fawnwoda, Suzanne Ciani and Greg Leisz.
Valuable as all that has been to her musical identity, Zeitler considers the creation of earth + death as something apart, something alchemical: a “transformation of grief and despair into acceptance and courage.” Central to this emotional context is the reality of Zeitler’s living with a life-threatening chronic illness which destroyed her bone marrow at the age of 14. Under such circumstances, it should come as no surprise that Zeitler describes earth + death as a reflection on “the elegance and brutality of things that are alive.”
Emotionally and harmonically potent, haunted and entrancing from front to back, Ghost Marrow’s earth + death is a vertiginous listen.
LINKS
The Garrote: Website || Bandcamp || Instagram || Twitter
ALBUM CREDITS
Aurielle Zeitler (Ghost Marrow) – vocals / synth / effects / guitar
Ryan Hoyt – additional synth on “fed by the dirt”
Sonny DiPerri – Mixing
Adam Gonsalves – Mastering
Loren Christofferson – Cover Painting
photo credit: Joshua Ford
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