Music Is Dying Now: Loscil

24 сент. 2012 г.

Loscil

Loscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function (loscil) in Csound. Scott Morgan was also the drummer for the Vancouver indie band Destroyer.

A self-released album titled A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies caught the attention of experimental music label Kranky, who signed Morgan on to release his debut album Triple Point in 2001. The album features six tracks off his first independent release as well as four new tracks.

Loscil followed up the release with Submers, an aquatic-themed album. Each track on the album is named after a submarine. The last track on the album was produced in honour of the people who died on the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk.

His 2004 album First Narrows (a reference to the official name of the Vancouver bridge, also known as Lions' Gate Bridge) marked the incorporation of improvised performances by a number of guest musicians: Nyla Raney, cello; Tim Loewen, guitar; and Jason Zumpano, Rhodes piano. Consequently, the songs on First Narrows are more organic and looser in nature than Morgan's previous work.

Eight of his songs were featured on the film score of the 2004 documentary ScaredSacred by award-winning documentary filmmaker Velcrow Ripper.

In 2005, Morgan released Stases, a collection of drones based upon the backgrounds of his work for Kranky Records. The album was made available as a free download-only release from One Records.

The theme of his fourth major album, released in 2006, continues the conceptual ascent each album has taken, from the sub-atomic level (Triple Point) and watery depths (Submers) to the surface (First Narrows) and the sky (Plume).

Plume continues Morgan's musical integration of other musicians' work into his ambient compositions, including Josh August Lindstrom on vibes and xylophone and Krista Michelle Marshall and Stephen Michael Wood on ebow guitar (as well as Zumpano again on piano).