Abul Mogard – Circular Forms

Abul Mogard – Circular Forms

Abul Mogard follows his latest stride into the real. Read my review of his previous EP here.

Circular Forms sees Mogard releasing his debut LP. Those who have been following the work of this retired factory worker turned artist might never had the feeling of having anything short of a real album. This album even clocks in shorter than some of his previous efforts, but there is undeniable progression and change in Mogard´s discography and this is yet another grand iteration of forward-thinking synth music. 

The best way to describe this LP is to set it apart from his first ever, self-titled work. As in Abul Mogard the motivation was to recreate the sounds he was missing, namely of his time working in a factory most likely around loud machinery, progressing within his musical venture, the urge to sooth his own mind by longing for the past has vanished. Circular Forms is not in any way the endeavor of a fretful man trying to recreate a certain time-space, but shows a aging artist going from being nostalgic into harnessing contemplation for him and his listeners in the most vivid synesthesia that can be created through the aural.

To quote the artist: "Lately I have been reading and appreciating visual art and paintings and this has informed my work on this album. Compared to my previous albums, this was the first time that I had a clear visual representation of my music, as geometrical forms – each element of a track suggested a form that intertwined with the other elements". 

Mark Rothko – Light Red Over Black (1957)

While my experience is not only set on geometrical forms alone, when listening to this LP, the visual representation of things hits home. As the track titles all carry some form of visual cue like "Slate-Coloured Storm" or "House On The River", one can easily grow fond of the idea that Mogard was experiencing some kind of visual experience, actual or through painting, that resembles these description. In return the listener can listen to this work and try to paint the picture with his mind while mingling his own sensual experience with the music. On one side, you can virtually do anything, sit in your room, looking outside, travel on train or bus or take a walk through nature and Circular Forms will serve as an enrichment and aural foregrounding of being visually aware of your surroundings. On the other side, I suggest taking the album art work or a paintings such as Light Red Over Black by Mark Rothko and, as he in his work suggested contemplate with these visual elements, get absorbed in it while Mogard channels the experience of art in its multisensory workings. The reference to Rothko is not just a random choice, Circular Forms seems to deeply reflect everything Rothko´s late work represented on an aural level.

Fixated on dark tones and grey hues, opener "Slate-Colored Storm" pulsating wobble of sound that is being countered by lighter overtones of sweeping synths deeply evokes the feeling of absorption; of one color into the other, of the surrounding into the an actual storm or the listener into the intermingling rising scapes of sound Mogard creates. There is the sense of an journey and entrance here and "Bound Universe" then is the point of having reached a certain state of mind, fully realizing ideas of dense layers and bubbling synths while never discarding the deep for sounding spacious and elusive. The eerie and psychedelic quality of the looping farfisa organ, almost recalling a jingle that is distorted into obscurity, is overlaid by white waves of noise as if Mogard was giving his impression of the universe as a sea and earth spiraling between it all. 

With following track "Half Light Of Dawn", one can find Freud´s oceanic feeling represented in these two tracks. While "Bound Universe" is the interplay of minding the self and getting lost in a subjective feeling of oneness, "Half Light Of Dawn" is the reminder, the point of awakening, an elegy to being aware while contemplating and not drifting into dreamscapes and the denial set forth by illusions of higher beings. One feels the cold yearning scapes calling, speaking of a life that still has to be lived. Closing of with "House On The River" the friction of the previous track is reconciled in one long, embracing composition of synth sweeps. A short while into the track a simple drum pattern, more or less singular hits emerge in the background, rising steadily and becoming a pulsating beat that leads out of the contemplative state into re-assessing ones position in the real. Hopefully possessing some deeper insight into your own life and having permeated the purely intrinsic with an urge to action. Here, once again I can compare Circular Forms with the work of Rothko quoting the mission statement of the Rothko Chapel in Houston: 

"The mission of the Rothko Chapel is to inspire people to action through art and contemplation, to nurture reverence for the highest aspirations of humanity, and to provide a forum for global concerns."

Get into Abul Mogard, support the artists and while Circular Forms is a grand experience, I can advise those who are just getting started listening to this kind of music to start with his The Sky Had Vanished EP or even his earlier work.

9 / 10