To briefly outline the conceptual framework: On »A Thread, Silvered And Trembling«, former Coil band member Drew McDowall indulges in one of his favourite pastimes: playing the bagpipes, and he does it with a lot of solemnity and gravitas. This style is called »pibroch«, which in Scottish Gaelic simply means »piping«, and it ranks far above folk music in the island’s cultural hierarchy. So much for the theory, now for the practice: McDowall’s supposedly electronic album is entertaining in the best sense of the word: without selling out its content. The 14-minute centrepiece, »And Lions Will Sing With Joy«, opens with drones and wailing sirens, reminiscent of air raid sirens, before choirs enter and harps take the lead.
McDowall takes his time to assemble a bundle of soundtracks that send both mind and body into the clouds. It’s not ambient in the classic sense; the arc of tension the Scot builds demands undivided attention. »In Wound And Water« also largely dispenses with dramatic crescendos, seeing itself more as a meditative exercise for harp and bagpipes that fades out gently at the end with subtly mixed glissandos. The first three tracks alone are marked by a sublime melancholy, which the closer »A Dream Of A Cartographic Membrane Dissolves« takes to the extreme. It’s sad music, but full of life.
