Slow Dancing Society
'Do We Become Sky?'
'Do We Become Sky?'
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PITP-V049 |
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ARTIST:
Slow Dancing Society ALBUM NAME: Do We Become Sky> CATALOGUE NUMBER: PITP-V049 RELEASED ON: January 12, 2024 |
FORMAT:
180g Cobalt Nebula 2LP Set Digital Download [at] pitp.bandcamp.com Streaming through all major digital streaming platforms DISTRIBUTION: Past Inside the Present D2C (US), Inner Ocean Records (CAN), Juno Records (UK), Phonica (UK), HHV (DE), Soundohm (IT), Tobira Records (JP), Linus Records (JP), Redeye (UK), A Thousand Arms (US), and others PUBLISHING: © 2024 Past Inside the Present ℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI) |
CREDITS:
All songs produced, arranged, composed and performed by Slow Dancing Society. Mixed and mastered by Drew Sullivan at SDS Studios. Original Photography by Drew Sullivan. Layout and graphic design by zakè. © 2024 Past Inside the Present. ℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI). This is PITP-V049. Marketed, distributed, and phonographic copyright: .Past Inside the Present. Matrix / Runout (Side A): PITP-V049 / A / DUNK!PRESSING. Matrix / Runout (Side B): PITP-V049 / B / DUNK!PRESSING. Cut at ODM. Pressed by dunk!pressing. Manufactured and assembled in BelgiumAll songs produced, arranged, composed. and performed by Slow Dancing Society. Mixed and mastered by Drew Sullivan at SDS Studios. Original Photography by Drew Sullivan. Layout and graphic design by zakè
All songs produced, arranged, composed and performed by Slow Dancing Society. Mixed and mastered by Drew Sullivan at SDS Studios. Original Photography by Drew Sullivan. Layout and graphic design by zakè. © 2024 Past Inside the Present. ℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI). This is PITP-V049. Marketed, distributed, and phonographic copyright: .Past Inside the Present. Matrix / Runout (Side A): PITP-V049 / A / DUNK!PRESSING. Matrix / Runout (Side B): PITP-V049 / B / DUNK!PRESSING. Cut at ODM. Pressed by dunk!pressing. Manufactured and assembled in BelgiumAll songs produced, arranged, composed. and performed by Slow Dancing Society. Mixed and mastered by Drew Sullivan at SDS Studios. Original Photography by Drew Sullivan. Layout and graphic design by zakè
about
Slow Dancing Society – Do We Become Sky? (Past Inside the Present, 2024)
"It is not the limit. It’s a fragile shield against the infinitely expanding freeze; it’s a network of invisible rivers that connects every continent and every creature, forever confronting science with its caprices; its psychic soot falls to rest on each of us. With all the reverence that terrestrial awe can afford, the latest work from Washington’s Slow Dancing Society (aka Drew Sullivan) gazes up and asks, Do We Become Sky?
Best experienced front-to-back in its 86-minute entirety, Do We Become Sky? is – by the artist’s description – a spiritual successor to 2008’s Priest Lake, circa ‘88, whose namesake location harbors visions of childhood freedom and innocence, of family road trips through northern Idaho and a yearning for something simpler that once existed under the same sun. Channeling the inevitably complicated feelings around loss and entropy through the years since, Sullivan relied on the unique, nostalgic tonality of the Korg Wavestation as the backbone of this set. Many of its tracks arrived nearly fully-formed, inspired by “dusty and blurred memories of sounds from youth that seemed to transcend time”.
As a result there is a skillful arc of tension and resolution across the album’s four sides, sustained by a distinct balance of rhythm and drift. “The Past is Always Following Close Behind” pairs graceful, melancholy arpeggiations with rich beds of swelling harmony, accented by guitar plucks that strike like distant lightning and unfurl across the stereo field. The looser, cascading composition of “Retrograde” creates a transitional moment as the dial of a disused radio scans crackling signals through storm and static. There is a quiet unease, but the center holds itself reassuringly; this too shall pass.
“Time Won’t Forget What You Meant to Me” is perhaps the most direct nod to the artist’s main inspirations here; a lucid, evocative synth progression is wrapped in panning whispers, like the maundering conversations that arise and fall away by the lakeside or along trillium-lined forest trails. The final side succinctly collects the themes of all that came before; “The Return” hums with angelic sweetness and a sense of light emerging beyond the greyscale roil, while “Coda” closes the suite with towering guitars, warbling piano and a kinetic rush toward an unreachable horizon.
In considering the onset of adulthood realities and the attendant passing of friends and family members over the years, Sullivan cited this quote from Clive Barker’s Imajica as particularly resonant:
“Remember that everything you learn is already part of you, even to the Godhead Itself. Study nothing except in the knowledge that you already knew it. Worship nothing except in adoration of your true self. And fear nothing except in the certainty that you are your enemy’s begetter and its only hope for healing, for everything that does evil is in pain.”
"It is not the limit. It’s a fragile shield against the infinitely expanding freeze; it’s a network of invisible rivers that connects every continent and every creature, forever confronting science with its caprices; its psychic soot falls to rest on each of us. With all the reverence that terrestrial awe can afford, the latest work from Washington’s Slow Dancing Society (aka Drew Sullivan) gazes up and asks, Do We Become Sky?
Best experienced front-to-back in its 86-minute entirety, Do We Become Sky? is – by the artist’s description – a spiritual successor to 2008’s Priest Lake, circa ‘88, whose namesake location harbors visions of childhood freedom and innocence, of family road trips through northern Idaho and a yearning for something simpler that once existed under the same sun. Channeling the inevitably complicated feelings around loss and entropy through the years since, Sullivan relied on the unique, nostalgic tonality of the Korg Wavestation as the backbone of this set. Many of its tracks arrived nearly fully-formed, inspired by “dusty and blurred memories of sounds from youth that seemed to transcend time”.
As a result there is a skillful arc of tension and resolution across the album’s four sides, sustained by a distinct balance of rhythm and drift. “The Past is Always Following Close Behind” pairs graceful, melancholy arpeggiations with rich beds of swelling harmony, accented by guitar plucks that strike like distant lightning and unfurl across the stereo field. The looser, cascading composition of “Retrograde” creates a transitional moment as the dial of a disused radio scans crackling signals through storm and static. There is a quiet unease, but the center holds itself reassuringly; this too shall pass.
“Time Won’t Forget What You Meant to Me” is perhaps the most direct nod to the artist’s main inspirations here; a lucid, evocative synth progression is wrapped in panning whispers, like the maundering conversations that arise and fall away by the lakeside or along trillium-lined forest trails. The final side succinctly collects the themes of all that came before; “The Return” hums with angelic sweetness and a sense of light emerging beyond the greyscale roil, while “Coda” closes the suite with towering guitars, warbling piano and a kinetic rush toward an unreachable horizon.
In considering the onset of adulthood realities and the attendant passing of friends and family members over the years, Sullivan cited this quote from Clive Barker’s Imajica as particularly resonant:
“Remember that everything you learn is already part of you, even to the Godhead Itself. Study nothing except in the knowledge that you already knew it. Worship nothing except in adoration of your true self. And fear nothing except in the certainty that you are your enemy’s begetter and its only hope for healing, for everything that does evil is in pain.”
press
"Washington's Slow Dancing Society aka Drew Sullivan has gone long here: Do We Become Sky? is a deeply immersive 86-minute work that very much rewards being listed to in one sitting. It is "a spiritual successor" to his 2008 album Priest Lake that draws upon feelings of loss, mostly using the tonality of the Korg Wavestation as a foundational instrument through the work. It features well-balanced boiling of tension with subtle moments of release, swelling harmonies, plucked guitars and evocative synth progressions that always keep things moving both physically and emotionally."
- Juno Records
✦✦✦
"Mere seconds are needed to identify Do We Become Sky? as a Slow Dancing Society production, which testifies to how clearly Drew Sullivan has defined the SDS persona and style. The latest collection by the Washington-based producer is a particularly beautiful one, not just for its musical design but visually too. Credit Past Inside the Present with issuing the eighty-six-minute release as a striking double-LP set pressed on ‘Cobalt Nebula' vinyl and complemented by an equally striking sleeve (it's available digitally too, of course).
Whereas some ambient-electronic artists evoke peaceful pastoral countrysides, the typical SDS soundscape paints images of late-night, neon-lit city streets. The image of Crockett and Tubbs cruising through the Miami night with “In the Air Tonight” as the soundtrack isn't far away when Sullivan's music floods the room. He describes the new set as a “spiritual successor” to 2008's Priest Lake, circa '88, which is easy to accept when Do We Become Sky? exudes nostalgic yearning for a more carefree and innocent time and uses timbres (many sourced from a Korg Wavestation) emblematic of the analog era. According to Sullivan, a number of the twelve pieces emerged fully formed, originating as they did from “dusty and blurred memories of sounds from youth that seemed to transcend time.”
After “Prelusion” initiates the set in a controlled orgy of luminous synth blaze, the title track presents the album's first glorious exercise in time travel when twinkling arpeggios and radiant chords dazzle the ear in a soundscape as huge as the night sky. Another trademark of the SDS sound surfaces in the engulfing “The Past is Always Following Close Behind,” with Sullivan coupling sweeping guitar textures and oceanic synth swells. Calmer by comparison is “Empty Lake, Empty Streets … The Sun Goes Down Alone,” which simmers in a way that captures the loneliness of the insomniac longing for release. The slow burn continues with “Retrograde,” as quintessential a SDS production as could possibly be imagined. Sullivan's music shimmers and swirls through the static, whether it's visualizing the mist-shrouded stillness of “Cavanaugh Bay” or unspooling through the set's longest piece, the thirteen-minute travelogue “Devastation is the Path to Recreation.” While unease and foreboding underscore many a track, “The Return” oozes the kind of serene calm one associates with Harold Budd's 1980 album The Plateaux of Mirror.
His affection for the dream pop of Julee Cruise, OMD, and related artists comes through occasionally, albeit allusively. The gleaming chord progression that gets “Time Won't Forget What You Meant to Me” underway wouldn't have sounded out of place on 1989's Floating Into the Night, and “Another Heart in Need of Rescue” seems to hint at pop balladry despite its abstract instrumental design. One final surprise arrives when “Coda” flirts with song structure and presents a percolating, guitars-and-piano arrangement animated by a drum machine beat. Glimmers of melody always lurk in the background of these productions, sometimes overtly stated and at other times teased.
In the interest of full disclosure, Sullivan created a SDS piece for textura's 2019 Joni Mitchell tribute Swallowed by the Sky, but any perceived bias won't stop us from fully endorsing this terrific new collection. Do We Become Sky? is state-of-the-art Slow Dancing Society and indicates clearly why textura contacted him in the first place about contributing to its own release. Like a true artist, Sullivan's genre-transcending work bears the unmistakable and indelible stamp of its creator. It's also heartening to see him still operating at such a high level eighteen years after Hidden Shoal released his debut album The Sound of Lights When Dim."
- Textura
- Juno Records
✦✦✦
"Mere seconds are needed to identify Do We Become Sky? as a Slow Dancing Society production, which testifies to how clearly Drew Sullivan has defined the SDS persona and style. The latest collection by the Washington-based producer is a particularly beautiful one, not just for its musical design but visually too. Credit Past Inside the Present with issuing the eighty-six-minute release as a striking double-LP set pressed on ‘Cobalt Nebula' vinyl and complemented by an equally striking sleeve (it's available digitally too, of course).
Whereas some ambient-electronic artists evoke peaceful pastoral countrysides, the typical SDS soundscape paints images of late-night, neon-lit city streets. The image of Crockett and Tubbs cruising through the Miami night with “In the Air Tonight” as the soundtrack isn't far away when Sullivan's music floods the room. He describes the new set as a “spiritual successor” to 2008's Priest Lake, circa '88, which is easy to accept when Do We Become Sky? exudes nostalgic yearning for a more carefree and innocent time and uses timbres (many sourced from a Korg Wavestation) emblematic of the analog era. According to Sullivan, a number of the twelve pieces emerged fully formed, originating as they did from “dusty and blurred memories of sounds from youth that seemed to transcend time.”
After “Prelusion” initiates the set in a controlled orgy of luminous synth blaze, the title track presents the album's first glorious exercise in time travel when twinkling arpeggios and radiant chords dazzle the ear in a soundscape as huge as the night sky. Another trademark of the SDS sound surfaces in the engulfing “The Past is Always Following Close Behind,” with Sullivan coupling sweeping guitar textures and oceanic synth swells. Calmer by comparison is “Empty Lake, Empty Streets … The Sun Goes Down Alone,” which simmers in a way that captures the loneliness of the insomniac longing for release. The slow burn continues with “Retrograde,” as quintessential a SDS production as could possibly be imagined. Sullivan's music shimmers and swirls through the static, whether it's visualizing the mist-shrouded stillness of “Cavanaugh Bay” or unspooling through the set's longest piece, the thirteen-minute travelogue “Devastation is the Path to Recreation.” While unease and foreboding underscore many a track, “The Return” oozes the kind of serene calm one associates with Harold Budd's 1980 album The Plateaux of Mirror.
His affection for the dream pop of Julee Cruise, OMD, and related artists comes through occasionally, albeit allusively. The gleaming chord progression that gets “Time Won't Forget What You Meant to Me” underway wouldn't have sounded out of place on 1989's Floating Into the Night, and “Another Heart in Need of Rescue” seems to hint at pop balladry despite its abstract instrumental design. One final surprise arrives when “Coda” flirts with song structure and presents a percolating, guitars-and-piano arrangement animated by a drum machine beat. Glimmers of melody always lurk in the background of these productions, sometimes overtly stated and at other times teased.
In the interest of full disclosure, Sullivan created a SDS piece for textura's 2019 Joni Mitchell tribute Swallowed by the Sky, but any perceived bias won't stop us from fully endorsing this terrific new collection. Do We Become Sky? is state-of-the-art Slow Dancing Society and indicates clearly why textura contacted him in the first place about contributing to its own release. Like a true artist, Sullivan's genre-transcending work bears the unmistakable and indelible stamp of its creator. It's also heartening to see him still operating at such a high level eighteen years after Hidden Shoal released his debut album The Sound of Lights When Dim."
- Textura
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