Mirror Views by Byron Westbrook - ASH INTERNATIONAL [ASH138] FLAC download included with physical items

Mirror Views

Byron Westbrook

A 4 track ambient album (1h 11m 41s) — released September 17th 2021 on ASH INTERNATIONAL

#electronic #ambient

Mirror Views is composed from audio elements of Threshold Variations, a multi-channel audio and light installation presented in 2017 while Westbrook was artist-in-residence with ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn. The audience visiting the installation was invited to navigate a dark room with mirrored walls while a sequence of colored low lighting filled the space, gradually shifting hue and amplitude as the sound played at low volume, co-existing with exterior sound. The installation's focus was dynamic play with perception of presence, both real and imagined.

The sounds heard here are a mix of cassette field recordings made on or around the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse, intermingling with synthesized environments created with the Buchla 200 Synthesizer at EMS Stockholm while Westbrook was in residence in late 2016. During his stay in Stockholm, Westbrook resided in a notoriously haunted boarding house where many claim to have seen a ghost in the mirrors in the top floor apartment. While he never witnessed the ghost, he was constantly looking. The recordings made from those sessions represent that anticipation: a straining to see presence revealed through haziness, not unlike the experience of gradual light changes experienced during the eclipse which inspired the installation.

Recorded by Byron Westbrook in 2016-2017 on location in Brooklyn, Long Island, Rhode Island and in Stockholm at Elektronmusikstudion EMS

Album reviewed in September 2021 edition - Phil Freeman The Wire

For our money it also might just be his most convincing album to date, a collection of delicate, careful field recordings and subtle tonal elements that places Westbrook solidly alongside his heroes and the greats of the genre. - Editor Boomkat

What initially feels like an invitation to drift turns out to be a deep dive into a liminal sea of sound. - Bill Meyer The Chicago Reader

Utilizing field recordings, sound installation works, and other sonic elements, Westbrook offers an engaging look into subtle environments with beautiful phrasing and surprises. - Brad Rose Foxy Digitalis

Review - Tomas Gonzo Circus

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