Shining Fields - The Tower to Surpass the Clouds
This year has been full of concept albums. Each of them described on Lost in a Sea of Sound have been excellent, excited to add the newest to the collection. The Tower to Surpass the Clouds is a very in depth aural soundscape of the Great Kanto Earthquake striking the southwest region of Japan and it's eventual effect on the growing culture and artistic freedoms at this time. The Tower to Surpass the Clouds was the first modern skyscraper in Tokyo and was severely damaged in the earthquake. The tower was named Ryōunkaku and was a symbol of free thought, demolished by the rising nationalism and military power. This military state executed many of the countries individualists and eventually took Japan into World War II. This is paraphrased from Shining Fields bandcamp page description, the original being much more in depth, but was necessary here to give the reader/sound explorer a quick reference into how the The Tower to Surpass the Clouds found it's creative origins.
The best description of the sounds within is a little more difficult than reading and re-writing something already written text. Shining Fields has composed something close to an "ambient industrial" style concept album. The selections vary in length and trying to pin them to one genre or use anything in quotes :) is probably lazy. The true measure is really listening and making your own connection. There is a lot to hear in The Tower to Surpass the Clouds. Two selections even include lyrics (in bandcamp description) and these words add to the account Shining Fields has garnered inspiration from. The first selection with lyrics, Taisho no Yume (Dreams of the Taisho) pushes thoughts to an old band called Sleep Chamber and their album Sacred and Surreal, while the second track with lyrics, also the title track, has a little early dark new wave feel to it. Just random thoughts to bring some measure to a composition that unearths rhythms from the rubble and infuses these patterns with a rekindled desolate energy, sleeping for close to a century. The Tower to Surpass the Clouds is complex and filled with a cold warmth for heavy introspection.
Released on Moonside Tapes out of the United Kingdom. Shining Fields is a musician/artist residing in New Orleans. This is the first full length from Shining Fields, although there are many releases under the project Proud Father. All on the bandcamp page. Cassettes for The Tower to Surpass the Clouds can be purchased from the label's bandcamp page.
Links
Shining Fields - bandcamp
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