Abul Mogard – The Sky Had Vanished

Abul Mogard – THe Sky Had Vanished

Enter Sky-Music. Most of you will be familiar with the concept of space music – the kind of electronic sound somehow associated with the notion of future and space travel. Mind you, space still is silent and everything associated with space music might have its appeal, but just as this notion can be said to be an imagination, space music can only be "space-y" and a fiction build around the ideas of the distant and the future. 

Synthesizers are woefully married with this imagery, and almost every time these electronically processed, not bodily resounding sounds are heard, the associations of future spring to mind and are utilized for description. One other association today, and one that Abul Mogard´s first release is narratively bound to, is that of nostalgia – or in other terms the past, inhabiting associations with synthesized sound. Old computers being used to sound "old" or recreate past auras of pop or electronic music. Mogard´s nostalgia of his 2012 self-titled debut lies in the nostalgia of his past workspace. A now retired factory worker, Mogard used his ennui to harken back to his aural past and recreate, through the means of synthesizing, artificial sounds, just as those factory machines seemed to give off.

The result of his self-titled record and his follow up Drifted Heaven were strikingly beautiful pieces of ambient music – "ambient industrial muzak" if you want to life in Mogard´s narrative with him. But what set his music apart from other synth-heavy musicians, for example many of his label mates at VCO Recordings and brought him much closer to the work of Tim Hecker or even granddad Eno, was a highly material or realistic quality to his music. While many releases of instrumental synthesizer music trigger above mentioned associations of something from the past or distant future, Mogard´s music and his newest release The Sky Had Vanished remains present – juxtaposes the sky to outer space, a realistic experience to the failed communication of the unknown. To put it in a simple formula and context of our time: why dream of the future, when there is enough to be heard, smelled, touched, tasted and seen at this very moment of our present? Why give in to the wishful thinking of a better world, by leaving it, when the right thing to do is to face the hardship and sadness of this life and maybe elevate right here? This is Sky-Music.

"Starring At The Sweeps Of The Desert" serves as the most reflexive piece of the triplet. A rising synth hum, delicate and evocative of a church organ played solely for you, is mixed with sweeps of bass ringing out. Sharing a deep connection with the music of Tim Hecker, one question this kind of soundscaping always entails, is how and if this music even speaks to you. While being often tempted to go into the pure emotional response of this music and feel things such as sadness from these ghostly vibes, I´d much rather propose and stick to the purely reflexive experience: What happens is that a deep kind of self-reflection kicks in, that your hearing is referencing its own experiencing of sound. From this springs deep thought and experiencing this cannot be described in words like meditative or dreamy but in complete and utter presence. Whatever it is, that is on my mind, I don´t empty it, do not exchange it for positive thinking or distract myself from it – I revel, I live with it. So, if there is one thing this track is telling me as it swells, glistens and dissipates into silence, it is "look around you".

Following title track "The Sky Had Vanished" takes a slightly darker and noisier tone; wobbering radio static and sharp feedback ridden, metallic sounds. This eight minute track still feels like a short moment in time, the breaking in, of the unseen and unconscious Real; every sensation of pain diverged and converged into air. Things come to a subtle close with "Desires Are Reminiscences By Now". Aptly named, this stretchy drone, while feeling closer to the opener, builds a deeper structure and while keeping things aerated, the blank spaces are filled with the progression of the track. After looking around, experiencing the pain of knowledge, maybe here is the point of acceptance and vitality being found. Unlike the fictional dreamscapes of space-music, by virtue of experiencing these sounds, you are able to cope with the contemporary and not regress into dreams and desires of something better. You can´t breathe in space, but can with The Sky Had Vanished.

9/10