Below the Ocean’s Surface

Oceans Above And Skies Below, by the London-based musician who goes by the name still fades (lowercase), is well-titled. The tracks on the album are often oceanic in their scale and, when not, have a slowly billowing quality. And when oceanic, they emphasize the sublime: the surface below which much is happening. Heavy echoes here of Harold Budd’s music, in a good way. More from still fades at instagram.com/stillfades and youtube.com/@stillfades.

The musician also runs Sound Ghost, which makes synthesizer plug-ins, sound packs, virtual instruments, and other tools. Details at soundghost.net. I’m especially interested in musicians who make instruments and instrument makers who make music, because those parallel paths suggest a tight feedback loop in terms of utility, on that taps into the sense that anyone who makes things that helps musicians is a sort of meta-musician.