The National Park Service - Secret Wind

This is the second write up for The National Park Service on Lost in a Sea of Sound. The first was for a cassette release on Rok Lok Records titled Winter Clothes. The distance is vast, close to three years from Winter Clothes, to this release on Lily Tapes & Discs titled Secret Wind. Oscillating slightly towards a focused storm of sound, guitars and drums pull at the helm and sail this composition through your thoughts.

This is a lengthy cassette. Almost an hour of well honed melodic ambient soundscapes. With the depth of recorded music on Secret Wind, sinking into an organic pool of droned out goo are steps your ears will take. The National Park Service seems to flip like a vintage coin, two sides of sound, both highly polished and deserving your attention. The fourth track titled "Smooth J" is a good example of the juxtaposition in composition. The start and finish play like an ambient soundtrack to a world passing by outside a vehicle window. Somewhere in the middle, the music gives way to mysterious field recordings and muffled voices. The entire tape resembles activity in a small port town. The harbor filled with fog and variations in light of day, sounds traveling through without origin or particular destinations. Then a ship pulls in, giving reason for the existence of life on the shore. Music plays like a fanfare for arrival and departure, then drifts back into the patient dark until water is parted again.

Released on Lily Tapes & Discs in November of 2016 in an edition of fifty. From The National Park Service bandcamp page this is something like the twenty first release. Number five on Lily Tapes & Discs.





Links
Lily Tapes & Discs site  - bandcamp - facebook
The National Park Service - bandcamp