Aarktica, In Sea

review by dave heaton

Aarktica = ambient galaxy-surfing + strong pop melody + in-the-moment drone. Here the emphasis is on the latter, but don't overlook the former, either. We’re floating, unmoored. Right away there’s an unmistakable mood: flickering tones with ominous chords beneath. “I Am (The Ice)” is the song title, signifying the ways this album is both personal statement and abstract landscape painting. If “I Am (The Ice)” is the sound of glaciers, spectacular and haunting, "Lymz" goes deeper inside, building a static fog of feeling.

We’re lumbering about in the same territory throughout. “A Plague of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)” quietly emulates an isolated mood, as tones shift subtly. The title track "In Sea" (a play, I gather, on Terry Riley's classic "In C") is similar but spiky. A guitar string scratching noise becomes the cry of whales or the cutting of frozen water. There’s also occasionally a pop song with the same mood, one that lingers on gorgeously, like “Hollow Earth Theory”, which reminds me of the second Aarktica album, ...Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway.

“Onward!” has a great melody that quietly progresses. “Young Light” is the catchiest pop song of the album, and instrumental. It represents the hopeful side of an album that gets more forceful as it goes. Even a track as downcast as “Corpse Reviver No 2” carries a sense of resolution and anticipation. “When We’re Ghosts” gets a sense of doom from electric-guitar noise bursts, the perfect lead-in to the last track, a cover of Danzig’s “Am I Demon?” which feels both like an exit and a headstrong statement of intent. Beautiful and breathtaking, start to finish.

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