Seawind of Battery - Clockwatching (Island House)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Monday melancholy? Then take a detour on the way to the office through Seawind of Battery's ambient Americana & cosmic country landscapes on promising new imprint Island House, & let the time slowing guitars, mantric looping & micro-overdosed haziness ease the work re-entry pain. Big thanks to Petal Motel for the tip.

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What The Release Notes Say

Although perhaps made in a time in which we are all on edge, more aware than ever to the passage of time, Clockwatching is anything but restless. It is an anchor in the sea of time, never rushed, nor does it overstay its welcome. 

Clockwatching is the debut instrumental solo endeavor of Mike Horn, who’s released more cosmic American music as Goldkey and Sunblinders. He leans deeper into the cosmic realm with Seawind of Battery, an ambient, experimental exercise that acts as a sonic balm for those in a state of existential anxiety. Mastered by Sean Conrad of Inner Islands & Channelers, with design by Steve Rosborough of Moon Glyph, this is the first release under the brand-new Island House Recordings. 

Birdsong calls in the ambulant “Above the Waves,” drifting and soaring along, catching the wind just so to coast. “Some Kind of Symmetry” melts, mirage-like as a distant ship passing through a channel at night. In “Sidestepping,” guitar chimes counting past the usual amount of hours, rendering time both meaningless and infinite, culminating in a time-warp fuzz of noise and sound. “Summer Hymn” is a bright interlude between the droning of the latter and the proximal “Levels,” a sequence of singing-bowl-reminiscent loops accented by delicate guitar lines that spread across the album, perhaps coming to an apex here before the denouement of the title track. “Light on the Horizon” is indeed a beacon, less of an endcap than a promise of what’s to come. 

Atmospheric and expansive, at first listen you would never know that Clockwatching was city-made music. Like his New York neighbors SUSS, this album by Mike Horn transports you to a wider sky with its patient, meandering flow. Guitar loops and call-and-response lap steel fill the space just so, and as the project title invokes, there’s a touch of an aquatic vibe here a la fellow New Yorkers Gunn-Truscinski Duo’s Soundkeeper, with its shimmering, endless drone behind intricate strums and haunting licks. 

I’ve listened to this album in the early morning, in the liminal pass between the high and low deserts, and it fits there-I’ve listened to it at night with the doors open and a breeze passing through, augmented by the nightbird and cricketsong of my own. Clockwatching is around-the-clock listening, unassuming and beautiful start to end. 

- Lara Bennett, Petal Motel

​CREDITS
Music and Instrumentation – Written & Produced by Mike Horn 

Mixed by Anthony "Rocky" Gallo 
Mastered by Sean Conrad [Inner Islands] 
Art & Design by Steve Rosborough [Moon Glyph]

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If You Like Seawind of Battery or Petal Motel Then You'll probably Like The Howard Hughes Suite