Gestures is a peculiar release; it’s not so much an album as a soundtrack for a game that plays like a dark dream.
It’s distressing and uncomfortable, a real achievement when you can dissect the tracks and find gorgeous instrumentation hidden in the arrangements.
Opener ‘Shell (or Wash)’ slowly cascades upon the listener; it’s ethereal and thick and creamy.
Slowly things take a turn for the worse in this eight-minute track and at the end you’re happy to have survived it.
Feedback provides the interlude into the groaning glockenspiel of ‘Night Time Trail’.
There’s a slight glitch influence to the percussion but the track keeps firmly to the dark ambient ethos instilled at Sad City.
Thirty seconds of silence proceeded the next track, ‘Jaya’, that features a droning sitar and dueling snake charmers.
This is definitely the most musical or consonant track yet, although it’s a little self-indulgent, going on for almost seven minutes.
Closer ‘Twilight (or Tightrope)’ is a dreamy piano interlude and feels like a cut from a earlier work that’s been stitched on the end.
It’s a little abrasive towards the end but nowhere near the ferocity of the rest of the work on display.
Words: Matthew Slater
