(Black Studies)
The Sierra Leonean producer lulls with languid sonics then forces a sudden focus with sharp bursts of static or melody
Across the eight tracks of Lamin Fofana’s latest album trilogy, the Sierra Leonean producer builds on his previous explorations in ambient music. He plays with a languid slowness induced by gradual shifts in tone, rustling field recordings and synth-based melody. The liner notes reveal a hefty ideological underpinning here: Amiri Baraka’s poetry and the pandemic warping our perception of time guide the opening instalment, Ballad Air & Fire; disruption of European colonial notions of art and rationality in Shafts of Sunlight; and the legacies of migration on The Open Boat.
But even without this guidance, Fofana’s musical choices have a nuanced and emotive impact. The opening, title track of Ballad Air & Fire conjours an ominous sense of anticipation with its half-hour of white noise, thunderous rumblings and creaking whispers of rhythm. Shafts of Sunlight’s title track continues the menacing motif until reverb-laden melody breaks through the noise, like those rays piercing the clouds. Fofana reaches his apex in The Open Boat: melodic rhythm builds like undulating waves on Poseidon (Dub Version)/Sea Is History and edges closer to the dancefloor with the arpeggiated melodies of The Unity Is Submarine. It closes on enveloping synth chords that ring with the hiss of static – a journey back to the liminal noise that opened the trilogy.
Continue reading...by Ammar Kalia via Electronic music | The Guardian
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