Review Electronic music

Emily A. Sprague

Water Memory / Mount Vision

RVNG Intl • 2019

Ambient and natural phenomena have established themselves over the years as associative links, almost as solid as an alloy. Where in electronic music, for example, no angular rhythms structure the stream of sounds and the synthetic fabrics develop open-air textures – they just float – images of free surface almost always fit into a choice of mountainous, stepped or oceanic vastness. When a musician like Emily A. Sprague dedicates her albums to mountains or water, it’s almost too obvious. To top it all off, the American sound designer comes from the Catskill Mountains in New York. More stereotype doesn’t seem to work. But in the end this is always a question of the result. Because Emily A. Sprague can’t just properly translate her inspiration into drone-based sounding surface works, she above all creates a river that builds its own space, invites you to linger with gentle power and kidnaps you somewhere else than in the deserted wilderness. The epics of the two albums »Water Memory« and »Mount Vision«, released by RVNG Intl on vinyl for the first time, may go well with this. But you can discover much more in them. Not music in which little happens, but one that really leaves you room to listen.