Nordic Mountains; Wind Frontiers; Hammer Dulcimer (chorus)

Resurrrection

Piano Instrumental Study Deep Sleep Relaxing

PIANO RELAXING DEEP SLEEP MUSIC (60)

Gently out of Society

Cirque (2016 Reissue Version)

Too Fragile to Walk On

It’s not often that a drone piece starts an album off with a bang. But that’s exactly what Gregg Kowalsky’s “L'Ambience, L'Orange” does. Opening his new full-length L’Orange, L’Orange, the song starts as kind of gentle wake-up call, with thick, escalating tones that evoke time-lapse footage of a morning sunrise. The intensifying sound waves feel like they could go on forever, but after two and a half minutes, “L'Ambience, L'Orange” stops abruptly with a hard cut to silence. It’s a rather shocking move that sets a brave tone for the rest of L’Orange, L’Orange, an album in which Kowalsky reimagines ambient drone, refreshing it with a blissful, optimistic spirit. 

“I didn't want to just make an ambient record where every song fades in and out,” explains Kowalsky. “This song opens with pure bliss, and you're in it, and time goes away. You’re wondering, ‘Am I thirty seconds in or 10 minutes in?’ Then it just cuts out. That edit is me saying, ‘Hi, I'm here again. Remember?’” It’s a fascinating way to jolt listeners out of comfort zones, but there’s more to the track than the sudden reminder of its creator’s hand. Kowalsky’s ending encourages you to play the song over and over, to revisit the intoxicating atmosphere that’s still ringing in your head after silence steals the scene. Repeat listens reveal new layers in “L'Ambience, L'Orange”, an homage to the life-sustaining sun that packs a universe of sound into just a few minutes.

Gabriel at the Prewindow

G.S. Schray