13th March 2013
Broken Harbour’s earlier release “Gramophone Transmissions” was a revelation to me, a dark and claustrophobic album that added new dimensions to the space music genre. So when I was contacted by Blake Gibson of Broken Harbour to tell me that he had a new release on Relaxed Machinery, I was pretty excited to hear it. Having had the chance since then to listen to it fairly extensively, I’m pleased to report that Gibson’s latest, “The Geometry of Shadows”, may be his best work to date.
Using themes of communication as a framing device, Gibson has crafted a collection of beautifully executed ambient pieces that move between light and dark, warmth and cold, static and clarity, and many many more states of being. It’s an album where alien static transmissions reply to dark Morse Code messages sent during the Victorian era. Where sound travels faster than the speed of darkness, leaving an ominous aural wake behind it until it breaches a tangible barrier of otherness and reverts to it’s primal aural opposite, travelling at the speed of light. Where brightness is measured in terms of an absence of emptiness, where metal and drones blend in beautiful ways, where stars are born and live and die all in a few moments time. Where spaces are bent and rearranged to hint at a physics that is both unlikely and improbable, and where light can shine with a searing intensity.
Needless to say, It’s a magnificent album.
“The Geometry of Shadows” is Broken Harbour at it’s best, a stunning work of dark and great beauty that really needs to be heard for oneself. I recommend it thoroughly, and I commend Blake Gibson for his skill and artistry. Definitely one of the best releases I’ve heard in a long time.
Source – http://relaxedmachinery.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-geometry-of-shadows-by-broken-harbour