I haven’t listened to a release, in a while, that can elicit the soul to the degree that Coherent Light Enclosed Without can.
Gahlord Dewald sounds like nothing less than a cutting-edge, avant-garde musician whose genre-bending exploits combine aspects of performance art, new-classical, psychedelia, and totally infectious vibrations with psychedelic vertigo. Recorded and performed in The TANK Center, everything melds and flows like thoughts traversing the strange material of its own body. The double-bass sounds as an organism cocooning itself in the nest of its surroundings, but its environment is its own creation. 

Self-released July 3, 2020, Coherent Light Enclosed Without is exemplary in the audio and visual arts, even if that visual effect is a projection touching the mind’s cinema screen. Although its running time is only 27’03,” it’s still the perfect adventure for whatever mood you’re in; it’s a quick escape to new worlds breathing from their personal creations. 

Side 1 is perinatal, existing as a single-celled organism sinuously twisting and moving throughout its surroundings, sensing ominous, terrifying spirits enclosing its shape. Bass trickles high-pitched tonality, bending our minds through exciting ambivalent spaces.

The bass is used exceptionally well to create a panic-filled valley. Whirring in the air, pulling and tugging on strings, then acrobatically somersaulting across the ground; scraping and sparking new sounds. The instrument is twisted and mutated, evolving by the ordinance of its operator. 

Mechanical shimmers elongate with the superimposition curated from the massive TANK Gahlord Dewald is performing in – creating a melange of noise.

Side 2 perfectly annexes the blissful dissonance of its neighboring region. However, this introduction contrasts a little; the ambient waves are more fluent and expressive. Instead of ethereally dark currents washing over us, we are treated to brief moments in the starry night. We hear a wonderful string of the bass’s structure. Reverberated clatter is repeated in this composition, but doesn’t transition towards anything, instead frees the bass to enjoy the outside world. Floating and cascading through its own sonority, the cello doesn’t quiver, yet integrates into its form. Small clicks can be heard in the background, while a string of sweet and harsh notes are accompanied by its massive wings. This pattern goes on until Gahlord Dewald calls the organism back, now we must stretch.

Deep, echoic tonality shines throughout your body, glowing and shrieking, but somehow offering a contemplative nature. Gahlord makes sure the double-bass is treated to fun exercises, striking the instrument with his azure bow, elongating rich, tuneful timbers running through the corners of this netherworld universe.

Majestically produced echoic facets hone exhilarating progressions, and lavish overtones. Executing his trademark with finesse. Minimal qualities lap visceral sensations congruent to the instrument’s, almost diaphanous, shape. Gliding the velvet strangeness of ambiance and the place Dewald is recording in, is all treated carefully, while also paying attention to how these elements interact with each other.
It’s safe to say Coherent Light Enclosed Without was far more than just some random, run-of -the-mill experimental album, from someone who wanted to experiment in the reverberated world of The TANK Center. Moreover, Gahlord Dewald constructs with a purpose, and a promise to the listener that this journey delves into dark vistas revealing the infinite form of the contrabass; and of sound and space.

Purchase Coherent Light Enclosed Without by Gahlord Dewald

gahlorddewald.com
Advertisement