Sundaze 2110

 Hello,  today the latest post on that stunning ambient artist  Scottt Morgan


Today's Artist is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function (loscil) in Csound in case you wondered, Scott Morgan was also the drummer for the Vancouver indie band Destroyer, but then studying communications and music at Simon Fraser University opened Morgan to the possibilities of experimental and electronic music and the rest as they say,is history...... N'Joy

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As Loscil, composer/producer Scott Morgan creates ambient music that drifts between the intuitive and the intellectual with deceptively easy grace. Since his 2001 debut album, Triple Point, a set of evocative tracks revolving around thermodynamics, he's shaped his masterful atmospheres and delicate, almost subliminal melodies with conceptual frameworks. The history and striking geography of southwestern British Columbia -- especially his hometown of Vancouver -- inspired some of his finest albums, including 2004's First Narrows (his first work to blend live instrumentation with electronics), 2012's Sketches from New Brighton, and 2014's Sea Island. While Morgan expanded his focus with 2016's ecologically minded Monument Builders and the meditations on creativity of 2019's Equivalents, the vast yet intimate feel of his music remained.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Morgan moved from the city's eastern suburbs to Courtenay on Vancouver Island as a boy. In his teens and twenties, he grew bored of the island's stillness, and channeled his restlessness into the bands he played with, which later included a stint as the drummer for Destroyer. However, studying communications and music at Simon Fraser University opened Morgan to the possibilities of experimental and electronic music. As he trained to be a sound designer and director, he learned about the fundamentals of computer music as well as the work of 20th century experimental composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Submers
Morgan's education shaped the music he was making on his own. Taking the term "loscil" (a combination of "loop" and "oscillate") from the audio programming language Csound, he began performing his minimalist dub/techno/ambient-inspired tracks at a friend's independent theater. He made a demo album, A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies, named after and inspired by a physics textbook Morgan found at a used book store. After a friend suggested he send the demo to Kranky, the label signed him and, following a few tweaks, released it as Loscil's debut album. Arriving in October 2001, Triple Point introduced the conceptual basis of Morgan's music and his abstract yet vivid style. Following a European tour with Stars of the Lid, Morgan started work on Loscil's second album. This time, he looked to underwater craft for his music's emotional and thematic coherence and used heavily processed samples of classical music to convey its aqueous depth. Submers, which appeared in November 2002, included a touching requiem for the crew of ill-fated Russian nuclear vessel Kursk.

Destroyer's Rubies
For his next album, Morgan used a much wider range of sound sources. Along with samples, found sounds, and computer-generated tones, he also incorporated live instrumentation into the work. Inspired by Vancouver's Lion's Gate Bridge, May 2004's First Narrows featured Fender Rhodes courtesy of Zumpano's Jason Zumpano, along with contributions from Destroyer guitarist Tim Loewen and cellist Nyla Rany. At this point, Morgan was still Destroyer's drummer, and his remix of the band's 2006 album Destroyer's Rubies, "Loscil's Rubies," appeared on its vinyl release. That May, Morgan also issued Plume, which reunited him with Zumpano and featured xylophonist Josh August Lindstrom alongside guitarists Krista Michelle Marshall and Stephen Wood.

Endless Falls
Loscil returned in 2009 with Strathcona Variations, an EP for Ghostly International that ranged from minimalism to orchestral heights. With March 2010's somber Endless Falls, Morgan took another step forward; the album's final track showcased the vocals of his Destroyer bandmate Dan Bejar. The Italian label Glacial Movements issued Coast/Range/Arc, a piece inspired by the Coast Mountains, as a limited-edition release in June 2011. Morgan's next pair of albums showcased different sides of his hometown. Appearing in September 2012, Sketches from New Brighton took its name from an oceanside park in Vancouver that was considered to be the city's birthplace. The album spawned the following year's Intervalo, a reworking of several Sketches from New Brighton tracks with pianist Kelly Wyse. In November 2014, Morgan and Wyse reunited for Sea Island, which drew inspiration from the isle that is home to Vancouver's international airport. That year, Loscil also appeared on a split EP with Fieldhead.

Morgan's 2015 works included the For Greta EP, a benefit release for a friend's daughter who was battling bone cancer, and the interactive smartphone EP Adrift, which incorporates the elements of each track differently each time it plays. A warped VHS copy of Koyaanisqatsi, as well as the writing of philosopher John Gray and the photography of Edward Burtynsky, shaped Morgan's vision for November 2016's pensive full-length Monument Builders. The next year, collaborations with Seabuckthorn and Lost Trail arrived. In 2018, Morgan self-released Bannockburn, an extended version of one of the tracks from Adrift. In August 2019, he issued Equivalents, an album inspired by a series of moody, early 20th century photographs of clouds by renowned photographer and artist Alfred Stieglitz.

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Fury and Hecla is a meeting of worlds. Named after a near mid-point between the residences of artists Fieldhead and Loscil, it explores both the familiar and the foreign. Although not a collaboration in the strictest sense, sounds were shared by each artist allowing for a sort of aural infusion between the compositions. The results are a series of fragments and quotes that appear and reappear - sometimes in ghostly form - throughout each artist’s tracks.


Andy and I decided on a very simple process for our Thesis collaboration. We worked purely electronically, sending files back and forth. We each started by initiating a piece, Andy on guitar and me using predominantly pre-existing, sample-based instruments I had built on the computer. Andy suggested we stay within the keys of C and A# as those are the keys his guitars resonate at the best. The initial back and forth was really quite natural. I was trying to stick mostly to atmosphere and texture, with Andy’s guitar sound taking up most of the melodic foreground. I find collaborating with instrumentalists generally easier for this reason - the instrument can sit overtop the drones, percussion and texture and occupy its own sonic space. On the final two pieces, I explored a little more rhythm but, again, tried to stay out of the way of the guitar and provide more of a backdrop for Andy to play within. The combo worked very well, so we saw it through with very little editing or changes and mixed them to our liking. We kept all 4 pieces we initially made. Andy proposed names for two and I for the other two. Honestly, one of the most diplomatic and fluid collaborations I’ve ever been involved in.
Thesis is a project where two musicians, who have never worked together before and often have never heard each other’s music, are asked to create a 10” record together. Both jacket and sleeve are designed, laser cut and laser etched by Gregory Euclide. Each piece takes a little over two hours to cut, fold and glue and contains an original design.




<a href="https://www.imagenetz.de/Ac6sc"> Loscil / Fieldhead - Fury and Hecla </a> ( flac 228mb)

01 Loscil - Fury 6:32
02 Fieldhead - Home 3:49
03 Loscil - Helluland 5:50
04 Fieldhead - Northumberland 3:58
05 Loscil - With Northerly Wind 5:00
06 Fieldhead - Hecla 3:46

Loscil & Seabuckthorn - Thesis 02

07 The River Cold & Primal 4:55
08 Viscous 4:47
09 Dust Clouds 6:06
10  As If I Already Knew     4:59


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Faults, Coasts, Lines is a combined photo booklet and music project started in the spring of 2019 in Tofino and Ucluelet, BC. Photos and field recordings were collected and assembled into this slow motion pacific meditation inspired by the visible lines found along the west coast and the invisible fault lines deep beneath the surface.

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the photographs and field recordings were taken on the ancestral territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht and Yuu-cluth-aht First Nations.




<a href="https://mir.cr/M8OJ9MSG">   loscil - Faults, Coasts, Lines </a> ( flac 308mb)

01 Faults 12:02
02 Coasts 10:29
03 Lines 8:40

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In its original form, Adrift is a collection of 4 pieces of endless music presented as a mobile application. The application uses structured random selection to continuously play the discreet musical components with no beginning or end. The pieces were conceived as aural backdrops, seascapes of sound in which the listener is encouraged to drift in and out of. Each of the four pieces is named after an infamous ghost ship. Like the ships themselves, the music is adrift at sea, wandering with the tides, following the swells of the waves, aimless and lost.

These four linear renders of the music from the Adrift application represent a singular version of each of the pieces and are presented here as free downloads.



<a href="https://multiup.org/c11337c34fd2ffc212a1691b7437505b">   Loscil - Adrift</a> ( flac 578mb)

01 Bannockburn 59:08
02 Baychimo 58:47
03 Orlova 57:35
04 Ryou-Un Maru 29:57


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