severence: hidden ceilings

Little is known about the shy musician Elliot Denmark who is behind the project Severence, other than the fact that he grew up in East London before moving to Murcia, Spain 12 years ago. Except for a few sampler contributions (including "Dark Heat [Moss Mix]" on Bine's already legendary 2010 compilation) his musical output was limited to DJ mixes he shared on his web site. Now the long-awaited album arrives and surprises with dark ambient sounds. Cloudy layers of blurred sound snippets tower up in long rooms while the underlying rhythm is created not by a beat but the slow rolling of soundwaves. Severence tweaked his sounds and samples until they meshed smoothly, and even dub elements are sensitively integrated while avoiding every kind of cliché. Hidden Ceilings invites us to an exploration of seldomly-accessed soundscapes that want to be carefully discovered and wandered through, not as an easy Sunday afternoon trip but an exciting "journey into sound." And just like the great Morton Feldman, Severence considers that sometimes the sounds that are left unplayed are just as important. Calm, even silence is a significant element of this record. A silence full of tension.