We're now in the year 2011 of our Natural Snow Buildings pandemic marathon (we started in 2001). There are only two albums representing 2011 and together they average about an hour each - no 6-CD marathons to slog through this year.
At this point in their career, NSB are very good at doing what they do. In Waves of the Random Sea, all the usual elements of an NSB drone are present - the repeated guitar loops, the cooing wordless vocals, and tribal percussion - but somehow it results in a slightly different outcome. While it's basically the same approach and same instruments as in last year's spacey The Centauri Agent, Waves is perhaps their most overtly ambient album yet. While distinctly NSB, there are passages that could be mistaken for Harold Budd.
The album was released by label Blackest Rainbow, which previously released the 6-CD Daughter of Darkness and the 2-CD Shadow Kingdom. Waves of the Random Sea was released as a (single!) CD and a two-disc LP. The vinyl version, which contains one additional song not on the CD, was limited to 750 copies. I don't know how many copies of the CD version were released, but Blackest Rainbow's Bandcamp page lists the album as "Sold Out" and doesn't have it available for streaming or digital download. About the only way to listen to it now is to stream the YouTube uploads.
So the take-away here is that NSB, using their standard means and methods, have created in Waves of the Random Sea an ambient album from their sound, as opposed to previous folk-drone versions (although you'll hear some of that) or space-drone versions (ditto) or noise-drone versions or even post-rock versions.
Here are the track list and lengths:
- The Waves Of The Random Sea (9:56)
- This Ice Fortress (12:30)
- Through Breaches In The Layer Of Fog (18:14)
- Abduction Dream (3:45)
- Drift The Water Soul (20:25)
- Still Desert (13:54)
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