Independent artists, especially those who scrabble away in genre burrows like noise and ambient, tend to go wherever the wind takes them. If any label out there is crazy enough to want to support a 22-minute feedback epic or an hour-long guided meditation cassette, there’s no logical reason to turn down their help.
Daryl Groetsch, the Portland musician who records under the name Pulse Emitter, has applied that thinking to his career for the better part of 20 years. His discography is impressively big, with nearly 100 albums and EPs under his belt, self-released or fostered by one of a few dozen small labels with names that sound like Linux speak (Digitalis, Cylindrical Habitat Modules, Cosmic Winnetou). And not a one of them sounds tossed-off or underbaked. Whether it’s pure drone pieces meant for meditation or more melodic fare that ventures into New Age territory, each work is deeply considered and worried over, and that care and concern flows out of every elongated synth melody and blissful arpeggio.
Swirlings, Groestch’s first release of 2020, arrives via Hausu Mountain this week. It’s not his first dance with the Chicago label, as he previously recorded a live session for the imprint as part of a split cassette with fellow synthesist Brett Naucke. But as this new collection was studio-based, it has a more methodical feel than the shimmery bursts found on his first Hausu release.
Recorded over a stretch of four months starting in late 2018, the six tracks on Swirlings emerge in waves, with layers of colorful sound washing in and washing out like the tide. The effect is primarily calming, but darker tones and compositions cut through the serenity. “Empty Hold” puts booming, bass-heavy notes underneath a ruffling clatter of metal objects with a bit of haunting static threatening far in the background; “Space Frost” is an appropriately chilly forecast with wowing drones and minor chord melodies promising that something evil lurks on that unknown planet outside the shuttle window.
Even at its gloomiest, Swirlings shows why Groetsch remains in such high demand by the underground labels of the world. If it weren’t for the necessity of flipping the vinyl or cassette over, it would be incredibly easy to get completely lost in his work. (If you desire, yes, you may read that as a tacit recommendation for the digital versions of his albums.) With some releases—particularly his Meditative Music series—becoming subsumed by sound is entirely the point. Groetsch seems aware of that, placing exit signs throughout Swirlings in the form of little details that pull listeners gently out of the plush surroundings, like the glitchy melody and uplifting key change that arrive halfway through “Cloud Refuge” and the delicate keyboard flickers that swim amid the big chords of the playful opener “Electron Central.” It may be cozy within Pulse Emitter’s sonic world, but you can’t stay there forever.
Album release show for Swirlings, Sat Jan 18, 6 pm, Speck’s Records & Tapes, FREE, w/Kyle Landstra and Loch Lock