GIFTS FROM CROWS - "BEYOND THE FRAME"

Gifts from Crows has long been one of our favorite artists bridging the gaps between neo-classical music, ambient interludes and thoughtful post-rock. On “Beyond the Frame” Gifts From Crows music is given to haunting visualizations by renowned photographer Helena Whitten. We hear a melodic piano phrase repeated and buoyed by a resonant percussion aspect that is a bit new for us in Richard Laurence’s work. Matching these deeply impressionistic passageways Helena Whitten’s work takes us on a mysterious and hypnogogic journey through the Hestercombe House in Somerset where these photos were taken. From the press release, “Taken at Hestercombe House in Somerset, the music explores a mystical figure kneeling at an ancient window, fingers pressed against the glass as if about to be transported to the eerie world of dark vines growing on the other side.

The music itself is a surreal trip where resonant basses and glitch drums accompany a hypnotic piano melody that persists whilst distorted synths and warped strings rise in and out of the mix. Listen for the unexpected sounds of a windup toy and whale song supplying a sub-bass drone to the soundstage.

The accompanying video uses only that single photograph as raw material and guides the viewer on a microscopic inspection of that one frame throughout the whole 3 and a half minutes of the track.”