Pathways opens onto the concealed geography of Eric Angelo Bessel’s forthcoming album, Illusion of an Inland Ocean. Familiar roads, abandoned infrastructure and weathered shorelines appear almost spectral, rearranged by memory until the everyday begins to resemble somewhere previously unseen. The track unfolds patiently, guided by recurring details rather than a conventional narrative or fixed destination.
Written, recorded, mixed and produced entirely by Bessel, the album comprises eighteen interconnected compositions created during early mornings and refined late at night. Mellotrons, guitars and richly textured analog processing lend the music its tactile depth, with melodies developing as gradually and naturally as changes in weather.
Pathways inhabits that elusive point where observation slips into dreaming, rewarding close attention with new routes beneath its surface.
Illusion of an Inland Ocean expands upon the Portland-based American–German composer and visual artist’s earlier releases Visitation and Mirror at Night, bringing his ongoing fascination with memory, landscape and technology into its most ambitious form yet.
ZR