Alabaster Falcons “Amethyst Ocean Oyster Refraction Index”

22 Nov 2013 — Richard Greenan

Unfettered, experimental tape label Reckno have put out so much new and fascinating material recently it's a wonder those at the helm, Chris Catlin and Peter St. John, aren't gibbering wrecks lying prone in a bolognese of ferric spool. Or maybe they are. Hot on the heels of Joane Skyler's labyrinthine Orz and the narcotic utopia of Yaaard's Kimberlin, we've been treated to a simultaneous quad release – including tapes from Tuff Sherm, Attack Bear, Street Thunder and Alabaster Falcons.

It's the Falcons that stand out for me, like chipped statues intimately reclaimed by a Wabi-sabi garden, content in their transience and imperfection. As the name might suggest, Amethyst Ocean Oyster Refraction Index oozes like a benign, zenned out augmentation of Fripp and Eno's magma tape loops. The Falcons teach a serene melancholy, imparting fractal examinations of nature with no beginning or end. This is joy in desolation, where nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

Purchase the tape over here.

(Artwork by Jason Kerley)