Waterscape Records, 2008

In the last 2 or 3 years, it seems as if the genre “ambient” has taken yet another step into a different direction; it has chosen to take a more electric or acoustic path to its listener’s ears. When I say electric, I mean more of a guitar oriented journey rather than just a warm analogue pad to lull you to sleep or to create an atmospheric background while you do other things. Descend from Ivory Cliffs examines this trend and brings forth a competent way of showing this to an unfamiliar ear.

Taiga Remains is Alex Cobb. He established the experimental label Students of Decay and has released on others such as Foxglove, Digitalis, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, etc. This 23 minute track shares some of the same qualities as his past releases, but also shows a more powerful collection of distortion, feedback and beauty in congruence with one another.

The self-titled track begins as a slow, pitchy drone that eventually becomes layers of drones, growing louder and louder with each minute. A forth of the way in, distortion starts to slowly build up until layers of distortion meet the ever apparent layers of drones; the ascension of both become one in an effortless fashion. They flow and ebb through invisible waves until the climax at the 14 minute mark. The loops become more distorted and change slightly. It continues on its path and ends as it commenced. The distortion and feedback are eventually stripped away for the echoes left behind, eventually becoming quieter until there is nothing left but silence.