It was as unexpected as it was exciting to read Bandcamps’s Best Field Recordings of 2024 and spot my “Powerlines” LP included on the list. “Powerlines,” which relates to the collaborative Arctic Auditories research project, is not an easy work so I’m particularly grateful to Andrew Weathers and Cody Yantis of Rural Situationism for having the trust to commit to putting the LP into the world and to Simon James for being my inspiring first listener. I 🧡 Bandcamp so this was a great honour to end the year.
Matthew Blackwell’s review of “Powerlines” is an absolute gift.
Imagine the Arctic and you likely envision vast, snow-covered ranges, pure white and silent. Angus Carlyle knows that’s not the case. On Powerlines, he documents what he calls the “electro-magnetic north” by recording the power lines strung outside of Tromsø, Norway with electromagnetic microphones. To do so, he has to battle the elements (“I am completely unprepared for the sleet, hail, slush and gusting winds: the sheer wetness of things,” he writes). This is a single, hour-long track, but it plays out like a record full of incongruous songs: we hear his laborious trek, the electrical hum and buzz of the lines, an interrupting group of Norwegians, and seemingly all the snow, wind, and water in the region. At times it’s difficult to believe that all these sounds exist on the same album, not to mention the same walk—one of the most dynamic and varied soundwalks of this or any year. You’ll never imagine the Arctic in quite the same way again.”