On a Painted Ocean

Description

Stillness can imply either tranquility or stagnation. Walt McClements grappled with these opposing forces in the years it took to realise ‘On a Painted Ocean’: a suite of searching accordion and pipe organ-led pieces that travel a steady course, swelling and expanding with a tide of tender emotion. The composer and multi-instrumentalist takes the title of his second album from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous epic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and its depiction of a boat that’s stalled at sea – As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean. It’s an impression that mirrors both the process and the product of McClements’s Western Vinyl release, from the gentle unfurling of a raw reed tone on opener ‘A Painted Ship’ to the gritty ebb and flow of effects-laden drone on ‘Washed Up’, and the closing flutter and signal interference that noisily builds toward triumphant euphoria on’Clattering’.

Tracklisting

Disc 1
1. July Blue Skies – Walt McClements
2. Sky Train Baby – Walt McClements
3. Venus of Barsoon – Walt McClements
4. Ikuchi – Walt McClements
5. Summer of Synesthesia – Walt McClements
6. Tsicroxe – Walt McClements