Of all the elemental descriptions for Scott Morgan’s music, liquid springs to mind first. You can find all manner of watery signs and signifiers in the album and track titles that continue to populate his quarter-century of output as loscil. Patient ambience and the dub-inflected electronic rhythms conjure oceanic nature, occupying space both deeply internal and familiar but still mysterious; placid surfaces that mask the coruscating details, like the embers of a fire through fog or smoke.
Lake Fire draws upon Morgan’s firsthand experience encountering wildfires and their aftermath in the mountains of British Columbia. The work was originally intended as a suite for electronics and acoustic instruments. Although that project fell away, it left a wealth of ideas. While the baseline of the album is true to the loscil brand, there is a richness of syntax and density of detail that fill the framework without crowding anything out. Pieces like “Bell Flame,” Candling,” and “Flutter” feature the kind of immersive environment and textural specificity that is found in the work of Fennesz and labelmate Tim Hecker. On “Ash Clouds” we hear the remnants of the album’s original form via a collaboration with double bassist James Meager, whose bowed, acoustic drone meets shuddering synth tones wrapped together in a kind of slow pirouette.Artists with Morgan’s kind of history might easily succumb to the temptation of repetition, finding satisfaction in simply maintaining. Lake Fire reveals that, without necessarily altering course, there are always new colours to describe, new destinations to explore, more mysteries beneath every surface.
ERIC HILL has written about music and culture for over two decades, primarily for Exclaim! His biweekly podcast, Surgery Radio, has been exploring the soft boundaries of experimental, ambient, and pop music since 2004. He has managed Backstreet Records in Fredericton for most of his adult life.