anthéne - Air Signs

A Closer Listen

Inspired by a bird landing on a city windowsill, Air Signs by anthéne looks to the skies for meaning or assurance. We don’t find a feathery, avian energy here. Instead, this is an airborne album of open expanse and surging textures, matching the bird’s natural element. Ephemeral guitar sounds overlap in loops, rising and falling like breath. Diffuse gusts of melody blow past. Bright glimmers of sound give a sense of sunlight and shadow.

Air is immediate evoked on Air Signs. So what about signs? With guitar, pedal, and filter, artist Brad Deschamps weaves signification out of thin air, or transcribes the air’s own signifying. The finished work may be organic and effortless, but the activity of meaning-making is hinted at. Rustles, clicks, pops, and crackling interference: these give the lightest abrasion, like a fine grit sandpaper. Audible traces of processing, looping, and background activity supplement the naturalistic palette. As warm and cool fronts of billowy sound interact, there is just enough frictional texture to remind us which way the ground is. On one track, the lightest rhythmic pluck of strings keeps us tethered, like a clock counting off the minutes of cloud-gazing.

The shortest track at 4:17, “closest” ironically feels blissfully remote from everyday detail. Warm textures come and go, leaving gaps between. They lift the listener, with a precarious sense of riding on thermals. What sounds like radio static might be the city street below. Our bird’s-eye view turns all the tumultuous activity into a comforting background blur. On the closing track, the album soars even higher. The light becomes harsher and the oxygen thinner. Our aerial reverie is disturbed by piercing tones and unsettled textures. Mountain air is stretched into strata of tones and microtones, revealing its own signifying beauty. But we are reminded that the life of a bird isn’t all peaceful gliding. Back from overhead flight paths and clifftop nests, we alight on the windowsill with a new perspective. (Samuel Rogers)