ArArtist: Granite Skull
Title: Secrets Of The Stones
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Self Released / Echoic Murk Records (Sold out)
I do often have to check myself with projects. With all the glorious music being put out under the broad conglomeration of dungeon synth, ambient and electronica I try not to overly concentrate on single projects. But its hard when they consistently put out excellent music so Granite Skull join Blades Of Folmar and Trasgo with a third recommendation in relatively short time.
Why?
Well seeing as you ask…
‘Gathering At The Stone Circle’ opens. Whistling hissing wash of keyboards, a rustle of grass perhaps as we approach. And once close enough the deep rich music envelopes us in the magic of the circle. A minute of music and the storytelling is there, you see. It offers a whisper of the cosmic here, looking up from within the circles, wondering what those above might see, hoping they do. Reaching out, following our own hopes on the most beautiful, low and gentle music. The stone gateway to places beyond that the buliders sought to reach themselves, and leave for others….?
‘Penance For The Fool Who Improvises’ may be a warning to the unwary dungeon synth artist, or perhaps with the gentle fall of rain and a melody that hints at ‘Thus Spake Zarathrustra’ but softer it speaks to the unprepared traveller. It plumes not through rocket fuel but through a willingness to let go and ride the currents that are there already. And so we find ourselves amidst ‘Frequencies Lost To Time (The Blue Hills Trail)’. I don’t know why but at my advancing years this really got to me. The stuttering interference riddle radio, a voice almost lost in the past but still here, now. The sweetest, most reflective of music; the gentle pulsing notes, the melody that reaches deep into that past in my heart and take me back simply to allow me to look forward with clarity not the fog of the present. It offers such ephemeral beauty to me; I know all this will pass for me as an observer. I am but a blink, a mote in the eye of the gods, and I will be no more but this… this sound, this frequency will remain long, long after. Teh frequency returns, caught in the stone. Perhaps for all time.
‘The Fool Wanders’ is a strange, shifting shape. It has no direction, and so suits the title, fits the shape of the wandering. A void of blossoming clouds of sound, pathways that barely exist and an end that has not yet been created.
If ‘Tales Fae The Tolbooth’ took the recorded history of a singular place to tell a fascinating tale through the years, ‘Secrets Of The Stones’ offers a different perspective on time as a place may experience it. It is not one of human intervention and mortal lives, this is the history of those seeking to explore beyond through a perfect gateway.
A sense of mortality pervades this in its ability to unflinchingly stare at beauty that will last for eons, that will silently remain as everything else changes. Do I read too much into this music? No. My mind follows where the music opens the doors. Perhaps my door may not be the one that you choose to open, or even one that you see. But it will offer these portals to you and you will gladly enter through one.
Quite the beautiful glimpse to experience, and perhaps the start of your journey too.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 