Stepping into the ethereal as a partnership
Taking samples from films such as Waking Life, Black Mirror, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Tekkonkinkreet and pairing them up with experimental post-rock, emerging collective Haunts bring audiences a vivid engagement on their newly released Alive EP.
Sharing the sentiment and intensity the tracks offer, the partnership of Shannon Lawlor and Jenna Luna came together for an offering based around existentialism. Shannon, of previous bands Eyes Like Mirrors and Her Stems Spiral, released the EP off his very own Moonswing Netlabel- a niche music label developing music in line with avant-garde, experimental, ambient soundscapes.
“We Say We’re Ok but Sometimes We Don’t Mean It” introduces the listeners to their static build up of excerpts of melody, in a melange sense of timeline. Growing with meaning as its territory enters an emotive ambience; the digitalism greets its congruent familiarity as it sets the tone for what the duo will deliver.
This is where “Growing In Limbo, Developing The Absurd” takes form. With noises echoing the likes of ghost mating hymns, there is a pure clarity in the mastering of the tracks from Jason Sutherland, which has a similar feeling in his own project Jaysnth. Basic, with evolving loops of intimate guitar detailing that shatter the perceptions of desire and influence, this song rather mimics the nuance of a life lived from memory, or a book reread out loud, with the depth and transition of intimacy being played like the game tag, and each time the chords vibrated, it’s as if they shouted, ‘you’re it.’
Not for fear of freedom or for the knowledge of another day creeping in, “Eternal Womb Sleeps (Awakening)” is a shuddering alignment with the rattling dark rings under our eyes that twist out water when sinking into deep, dark and fragile feelings. I can feel the hurt, the suppressed shudder of anger in the sample used partnered with the backing of the whirlwind of its melody. Getting heavier past halfway, the track resonates with all things of today- the manic terrain of living, the schooling of duality in the relationship between us and the inanimate, as well as the forgotten series of yesterday.
“My Body Is My Own and Nothing You Can Say Can Make Up For What You’ve Done” feels like the beginning of flu, slowly progressing in mood, as it elongates through the limbs and nerves of your immune system. The sound gets harsher, as if it were scolding you, taking rapture in its cold brash melancholic muster, and the airing out, as if the calm sat within you, easing out the angst it once owned.
The EP transcends as it comes to a slow finish. “Among This Delicate Green, I Still Feel So Hopelessly Blue” is the climax to our inner self exploration. Done in levels, with ethereal evocative strings of sound backing the epic screeching of truism in the post-rock nature of music making, the vulnerability in this narrative is raw and oddly defined by its strength n composition.
The duo’s first EP was recorded with limited hardware, software & production skill, including internal microphones, guitars & digital instruments. The overall sound leaves one with the haunting presence of clashing emotion, but at the same time, pure stillness. It has a simple existence and is a fair introduction into which they are, sound artists, people and partners.
Keep up with Haunts on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, tumblr, and Ello.
