Aarktica - Ecstatic Lightsongs (Hannaqpacha) [Post-Rock/Alt-Pop]
- The Slow Music Movement
- 39 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Aarktica is no stranger to TSMM's blog and playlists. Otherwise known as Jon DeRosa, a Los Angeles resident, he's been producing atmospheric music in many shapes and forms over the last twenty five years or so. Refreshingly he's more restless than most in the ambient world, and has been known to throw in some beats as well as add his own, and guest vocals to muddy the stylistic waters. Ecstatic Lightsongs is his most full bodied, band powered departure from low gravity music so far.
In to lend DeRosa, who takes care of vocals, guitars and synths, a hand are the ever great Henrik Meierkord on cello, Mike Pride on drums and Britt Warner lending her vocal talents on three tracks, as well as Lewis Pesacov, Charles Newman and Frank Best cropping up on the odd track here and there.
I guess you could call the album atmospheric, the tempos are low and the songs are wrapped in textures of varying density rather than allowing the sonics to fade to nothing for contemplation's sake, but don't worry. DeRosa is a blackbelt in creating thoughtful ambient moments.
The album lets slip DeRosa's age and is rooted in an obvious love for, and first hand experience of, eighties and nineties music, that at the time - well before the great new millennium genre fragmentation, would have been filed under indie-pop/rock. The album wears its Dr. Martin's, tight black jeans and leather jacket proudly, and shoegaze, post rock and gothic dirge weave through much of the album, with only the cultured electronic production and fusion quality giving away its 2025 origins.
Kicking off the album is "Trick of the Light"; the percussive drive, ambient thermals, Warner's occasional vocal infusions and uplifting guitars providing an optimistic cushion for DeRosa somewhat melancholic trip down memory lane. A trip hop rhythm gets heads nodding on "To Love is To Believe" before Meierkord adds some low-lit, minor cello drama ready to sweep DeRosa's vocals through the shadows, his sparse guitar just about lighting the way to an ambient, drumless space rock second half.
"Why Say Anything" starts in stripped back folky singer songwriter fashion before descending into pleasantly distorted post-rock territory, a darker foil for the blissful, good natured ambient swathes and woozy guitar motifs of "Ecstatic Light Transmission". The optimistically entitled "Destination Paradise" starts off in classical cello fashion before more trip hop drums, guitar and vocal samples change the mood and invite the lighter vocal tones of Warner to have her say, soon to be joined by the deeper but synergistic voice of DeRosa; the pair really compliment each other.
"Cloud Formations" sets off in minimal fashion before expanding into daydreamy guitar and synth ambience, the perfect vehicle for another welcome, more ethereal duet. "The Bird That Hides Itself" is a place where mournful cello meets minimal guitar, and melting sonics provide a purple haze for the laidback neoclassical strains. "Laughing In The Rain" is a suitably uplifting slice of crowd swaying, lighters/phones (depending on your age and level of nicotine addiction) in the air indie-pop/rock, and the closest you'll get to wanting to move whilst listening to this fine trip back in time and place.
Playlist Companion
Find Arktica in the Slow Oddities Playlist.