Jannick Schou – Against a Backdrop of Blue Hills

Culled from hours of orchestrated tape loops, “Against a Backdrop of Blue Hills, They Were as Beautiful as a Lullaby” finds Jannick Schou circumnavigating the folds of a rich, effervescent landscape with monsoon-like drones, mountainous drifts, and suspended tones.

Tape loops designed as torrential storms, evasive sounds peak from crevices, me sat transfixed in a half-conscious state, between wake and sleep, exploring the nether regions with a thousand yard stare. “Against a Backdrop of Blue Hills…” provides the canvas for a drifting stasis, wavering and dissolving amongst glimmers of thoughts; me, immobile, intent on the far reaches of the ether, a study of the minutia, the cataclysm of antimatter, an assured focus of the universe condensed in my writhing hands, my feet seemingly suspended above the floor, weightlessness, a “Departure”, fleeting tracks such as “Untitled II (For Tape) and “A Wave in My Backyard” allow distance from the body, now a separate entity; the mind is adrift. All extremities go numb in “Blue Hills”; the listener is left with an awareness of location but one’s surrounding are intangible—the closeness of the music develops even further; an overwhelming oneness ensues.