Still yet swift, the track “A String of Lights Beneath the Lake” by Australia-based musician Tuonela combines the hazy apparation that is drone music with an urgent momentum often considered anathema to drone-ness. If still waters — to borrow a metaphor suggested by the track’s title — run deep, then still music might yet travel at light speed. The held notes, phrases of sheer linear delight, in Tuonela’s track bring to mind such visual parallels as faces contorted in Silly Putty and starships switching on their FTLS hyperdrives. Both those, of course, are variations on warping. This tension between stasis and speed is at the heart of “A String of Lights Beneath the Lake,” a serene mass comprised of elements in turmoil.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/tuonela-1. More from Tuonela at tuonela.bandcamp.com.
A day off due to the extreme cold allowed me an afternoon to create a remix Tuonlea’s beautiful piece. Posted here: https://soundcloud.com/l-a-j-1/a-string-of-lights-beneath-the