Grid Of Points, brief in length but rich in substance, is the deep and meditative new album by Grouper, the long time project of Liz Harris. For six and half songs and 19 minutes, just Harris’ voice, her piano, the creak of its pedal and an enveloping recording hiss do quite battle with the silence until interrupted during the final track, ‘Breathing’ when a field recorded freight train roars past just shy of its two minute mark. The train then inexorably fades unaccompanied into the sonic distance. In response to questions about Grid Of Points’ sparseness and brevity, the latter in part caused by sickness during the recording, Harris has alluded to its completeness;
The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs’ lyrics speak more directly of, the space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.”
Grid Of Points is interested not so much in representing what is present nor the beginning or the end, but rather with the moments before and after that presence has come and gone. What slither of energy remains in a seeming void and what is committed to memory are aspects that fascinate her just as much as what created them. Notes within and at the end of meticulously constructed chord progressions are held with eternal patience, the ensuing ripples of nothingness that engulf them are the barely animated characteristics of the album’s contemplative manoeuvres. Much like the aforementioned train that is allowed to fade without intervention.
Grid Of Points was out last week though Kranky. Buy here. Stream the album and watch an unofficial visual put to the unassuming beauty of ‘Driving’ below.
Grid Of Points (Full Album Stream)
Grouper (USA)
Kranky
Album Stream
Driving
Grouper (USA)
From the album, ‘Grid Of Points’, Kranky.
Unofficial Video