"Prairie spells, a ribbon wove" is the outcome of a long-distance collaboration between Lightning White Bison (Adam Parks, also of Timber Rattle) and Drekka (Mkl Anderson), who at the time of its culmination were in eastern Czechia and central Indiana respectively.
The four 11-minute tracks are a sonic document of the exploration and reconciliation of geographic disparity, the distance between the places in which the collaborators each found themselves in a time of isolation. That document is here assembled as a quadripartite image of unity in concept and sound.
Built from a simple palette of exchanged raw materials, minimal drones, and field recordings from Mkl’s and Adam’s individual wanderings and past travels together, “Prairie spells, a ribbon wove” towers like a structure of unknown origin in a frosty plane, looming and beautiful and committing to neither threat nor its counterpart. These recordings call to mind the masterful tension of Fatima al Qadiri’s "Atlantique" score or Tim Hecker’s gentler moments. And although the music never tips into the pulsating realms that Coil’s "Hellraiser themes" do, this work similarly dances the line between pleasant and unsettling.
At this point in Drekka’s quarter century career, it would make sense to acknowledge his own hearty catalogue as an antecedent to this work. But like many of the most engaging collaborations, it’s difficult to decipher where one’s vision ends and another begins. And this can be said of the aesthetic of these recordings as well. Sight and site and sound and memory seem to all play a significant role. The result is rich and haunted.
1. untitled, at sinjin 11:00
2. through creatures, night return 11:00
3. bird and savior, sacred illness 11:00
4. at telč, an empress embalmed 11:00
