Simon Scott – Traba (Review)

The new mini LP “Traba” by Simon Scott is finally available: Following the brilliant Navigare (Miasmah, 2009), Simon Scott has returned with his latest work, Traba, a four track mini-LP started during the Navigare sessions and completed in Scott’s o3o3o studio, Cambridge.

The mini-LP begins with She Came From The Sea, a haunting ambient piece which vividly captures the feelings of isolation and loneliness one imagines is felt when out at sea and far away from home. Indeed, the track is so effective at invoking such feelings that it at times threatens to overwhelm the listener.

She Came From The Sea (Excerpt)

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After the oppressive opener, The Water Loop soothes with its narcoleptic loop building slowly and gently, turning over and repeating again. As the piece progresses however, a menace begins to assert itself and then slowly becomes more apparent. The subtle influence of Stanley Kubrick is then summoned for the sinister and cinematic ending.

The Water Loop (Excerpt)

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Lamina was written while Scott was suffering a temporary bout of tinnitus and waiting on results of a brain scan. Indeed, the anxiety felt while composing this number is apparent, the track proffering a feeling of submergence with jarring, electronically manipulated notes, static and field-recording. At just over eight minutes, Lamina is a lush slow-burning masterpiece of fear and claustrophobia.

Lamina (Excerpt)

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Traba’s climax is Avalanche, which is directly inspired by Scott’s uncle’s death. The title is apt, as Avalanche delivers a building, unstoppable momentum underpinning the tortured notes, the motif for the track never being far from the mind. Scott’s uncle was a Royal Navy submarine captain who succumbed to his struggle with alcoholism, passing away after returning from a lengthy stay at sea and drinking himself to death.

An Avalance (Excerpt)

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Learning of the heartache surrounding the inspiration for this mini-LP, one could infer that its consummation was a cathartic release but even without knowing the anguish that gave rise to this work, the listener would be reminded of the ocean, of being lost at sea and of submergence. The sea holds great importance to Scott and the sense of melancholia, yearning and loss are ever looming.

Traba is a beautifully esoteric work of digitally manipulated instruments which have been layered into dense textures that almost, but never quite, overcome the melody present. There are harsh sounds here too, rhythmic and mechanistic, though this listener is left with a sense that buried deep within the loss and the anguish, an ethereal beauty lies beneath the waves.

Traba’s exquisite artwork was designed by Erik Skodvin of Deaf Centre and will be released in a run of 500 high quality vinyl copies by Immune Recordings on June 15th. – Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

Track List:

1.  She Came From The Sea
2.  The Water Loop
3.  Lamina
4. An Avalance

Release Date: June 15th, 2010

Order from Immune here
Also from Experimedia here

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