Markus Mehr – Off (Hidden Shoal)

Third part of the Augsburg-based ambient composer’s conceptual trilogy (following In and On), which consists of a single 42 minute opus.

It’s hard to do justice to the range of sounds you’ll find here – tremendous, rumbling, industrial atmospherics forming most of the backdrop; plaintiff, space-age whines; kosmische melodies; classical piano; a choir of voices. For something that’s so abstract on paper - and so steadfast and glacial in its pacing - it connects brilliantly with the listener, prompting all kinds of emotional and philosophical responses. It makes you wish some film maker would use the music as a template for an exploration of the origin, or the meaning, of space, earth, life, the cosmos – it would undoubtedly make for an epic, soaring, awe-inspiring journey.