Endless Falls

Album Review

Endless Falls, Scott Morgan’s first Loscil album since 2006’s Plume, reveals that while the producer’s approach has remained basically the same since Triple Point, he develops new dimensions with each release. As with his previous work, the album’s pieces are focused around a central theme — and Endless Falls’ main motif is especially apt for an ambient artist. Morgan was inspired by the rain that washes over his home base of Vancouver, and field recordings of storms that he made in his backyard flow in and out of nearly every track here. Rain is also a clear influence on the rest of Morgan’s beautifully integrated sonic palette, which spans delicate pitter-pat percussion, limpid pealing tones, and deeper-than-deep bass that rumbles like thunder. This aquatic sound isn’t like the almost unfathomable depths Morgan explored on Submers, however — it’s gentler and more introspective, reflecting that these tracks were made in and for rainy days and nights. Morgan gets especially abstract on the opening title track, which melds the rain with serene drones and scalp-tingling sub bass that eventually gives way to strings courtesy of violinist Kim Koch. Later, Robert Sparks’ bass recorder on “Fern and Robin” adds to the piece’s impression of a forest drying off after a spring shower, while “Showers of Ink” becomes one of Endless Falls’ most transporting tracks with little else besides a skeletal rhythm and a bassline with Zen-like simplicity. Though all of Endless Falls is as subtle as ambient should be, Morgan does let the suggestion of melody slip into the foreground of some of the most striking tracks. On “Estuarine,” the piano alternates between playing ghostly fragments of melody and adding its own textural washes to the windy tones and sonar-like pings around it, while “Shallow Water Blackout” and “Dub for Cascadia” boast overtones that are more elusive and beguiling than an upfront tune. However, the album’s biggest departure appears on its final track: “The Making of Grief Point” features Morgan’s Destroyer bandmate Dan Bejar delivering a monologue about the most anguishing parts of the creative process, and his words and the music around him each make the other even more poignant. Endless Falls’ mix of old and new maintains Morgan’s reputation as one of the most consistent, and consistently interesting, producers out there.