zum042 cassette
"Ascending Planes grabbed me in a way that not many electric guitar records have in a while (and, to be fair, there’s some pianobass, and cello here, too, but it’s the guitars that shine). Warren Ng’s four pieces are shapeshifting, spectral, and expansive. Layers fall apart and into each other, dissecting moments of bliss and contemplation with sonic stasis that becomes immersive as it continues to churn through lilting stretches. Searching for notes with clear-eyed ruminations, Ng leans into the hypnotizing spectacle of transient melodies that sparkle in patterns amongst the resonant emptiness. Beauty is hidden in each hidden corridor, shrouded by a hazy aural veil that only offers glimpses behind the shimmering drones. Ascending Planes is such a lovely surprise." - Review by Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
The four pieces that comprise Ascending Planes are open-ended compositions revolving around a contemplation of planes of consciousness that are meant to provide a structure or space for the listener to dwell in, live in, and think in for an ephemeral stretch of time.
Empty Frames is an evocation of rapidly flickering images and light, the constant framing and reframing of perception in our eyes and mind seen in a rapid motion, hallucinatory register of resulting half-images.
Passages is the passing away from one moment in time to another, from one present into another, the successive transitions of the self or other.
Preconceptions of the Conception is a recognition, a fleeting glimpse, the formlessness of thoughts in the pre-dawn haze, the moment before the moment of the impulse of creation occurs.
Ascending Planes is a reflection on the possibility of transcendence from the bodily from the world of forms into an immanence of pure image or planes of consciousness.
These pieces are a coalescing of thoughts from a lifetime of immersion into experimental film and music, minimalism, and drone music and concerns perception, space, durational sound, and the Imaginary.
Among many other nameable and nameless things.