Dylan Henner: A Dingo Crossing a Stream
Inner Islands

Sabriel's Orb: Skin to Skin
Inner Islands

These cassette releases by Sabriel's Orb and Dylan Henner uphold Inner Islands' reputation for spiritually replenishing sounds. Label followers will recognize the name Willow Skye-Biggs from the Stag Hare releases that appeared on it between 2010 and 2017. The prolific producer has since released music under other aliases, namely Ariel, Ava Lux, and now, with this full-length debut, Sabriel's Orb (a split with John Atkinson earlier appeared on Whited Sepulchre Records in 2018). While no doubt commonalities could be identified between the projects, she regards the latter as a shelter of sorts; of Skin to Skin specifically, she says, “I picture a flowing dark river of energy, saturated in longing, in sadness, in desire, in hopefulness.” The intimacy intimated by the title likewise accentuates the emotional dimension of the material, how exposing a portrait the four soundscapes are of their creator and how much they embody states of feeling.

Each setting is in the eight- to ten-minute range and thus affords her ample time to work her magic. Although no production-related info is provided, Skin to Skin is synthesizer-heavy and, judging from the aural evidence, eschews field recordings or acoustic instrument sounds. “Long Distance Yearning” blends flowing streams and agitated swirl for nine-and-a-half minutes, the incessantly twinkling sound mass vibrant and aggressive yet hardly assaultive. With bright synth patterns dancing alongside engulfing pools of ambient textures, “We Got Something” radiates with the intensity of the Aurora Borealis, even if halfway through layers begin to drop away until all that's left are sleep-inducing chords. Arguably the release's prettiest production is the cassette-closing title track, in which a softly undulating backdrop pulsates as pretty micro-patterns dance brightly across it. All four of these Sabriel's Orb meditations offer realms custom-designed for maximum absorption.

Complementary to Skin to Skin is A Dingo Crossing a Stream, though Henner's source of inspiration is far different. The album and track titles derive from Indigenous names for places across Australia; visiting Australia as a photographer's assistant, he ventured into the outback to gain a better understanding of the land's original inhabitants and through a local guide learned about Dreamtime and the Everywhen creation stories of a local tribespeople; Henner also gathered field recordings from the Arrernte lands around Uluru to make a firm connection between the recording's four settings and the album theme. The respect and humility with which Henner approached the project is reflected in the sincerity of the music he created for it.

“A Spring with the Remains of a Fire,” the first of side A's three tracks, instantly invites the listener in with becalmed atmospheres and peaceful drift, textures used in this case to evoke a nature setting where sunlight glistens through trees and sounds of nearby streams appear as a murmur; with the sound design evoking so vividly the impression of an earthly paradise, it hardly surprises that the sudden appearance of a siren comes across like an intrusion by non-inhabitants. Whereas gentle waves of burbling pianos lend “A Pool Deeply Gouged out by Water” a subtly uplifting quality, the mood of “A River Drying Out,” its title admittedly a factor in the impression generated, is largely melancholy.

It's the second side's “Take a Feather from the Old Pelican,” however, that is the major achievement. For twenty-two minutes, Henner captivates with a soundscape whose meditative, glacial drift feels more celestial than earthly, and the control he demonstrates in maintaining musical flow while at the same time altering the sound mass as the piece advances is remarkable. Occasional rumblings surface to offset the high-pitched whistlings, but for the most part serenity's achieved. Of all the pieces presented on the two releases, it's this one that impresses as particularly amazing.

May 2020