Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea’s new album Liberamente is the kind of record you fall deeply into. The trio that hails from both Indiana and Texas create a gorgeous sonic tapestry that feel like part drone-y ambient and almost modern classical. You hear notes and melodies but instruments aren’t discernible. It’s almost like hearing an orchestra as you float in a lucid sleep, or as you rise from under shallow blue waters. Slightly hypnotic and mildly psychedelic in terms of how the songs affect your state of mind, Liberamente is like a symphony in deep space.
Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea are a three-piece that consists of Marc Ertel, zakè and Damien Duque. These three come at the music they create like painters, using musical brush strokes to create a dense, ethereal picture of sound. Impressionistic, surreal, but based deeply in emotional release. Touches of Auburn Lull, Billow Observatory, and modern classical works of Johann Johannsson and Colin Stetson echo in the work, but it’s very much its own musical beast. With their second full-length, and their first with Azure Vista Records, Dawn Chorus and the the Infallible Sea have established themselves as true sound innovators.
When you drop the needle on Liberamente you must surrender yourself to the world you’re entering. Title track “Liberamente” sets the pace and mood as stunningly gorgeous swells of melody and mood roll over you. It has the feel of low fog rolling in. Or the 10-minute side two opener “Ciclo” that builds like a cloudburst. The band turns guitars into ethereal orchestras that seem to appear from out of nowhere. There are also moments where musically Dawn Chorus sounds like Boards of Canada. Something like “Silenzio Potente” or “Caduta del Cielo” have the quiet, almost hallucinogenic quality of BOC’s interlude pieces in-beween tracks.
Liberamente comes together perfectly, coming to a hazy end with “Drala”. The bookends of “Liberamente” and “Drala” truly feel like the perfect opening and closing of this album’s sonic world. It’s a perfect and continuous mood of quiet calm and dreamy, symphonic grace.
There’s really not enough music like Liberamente in the world. It’s a record filled with quiet joy and contemplative beauty. Marc Ertel, zakè and Damien Duque manipulate the common into something quite uncommon and unique. Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea have made us a tiny patch of reprieve and calm from the insanity out the door. You need only to drop the needle and step inside.
8.6 out of 10
Liberamente arrives 10/16 via Azure Vista Records. Preorder it here.
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