Concern - Truth & Distance

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Brian on Thu 18 Nov, 2010.

More droney shizzle yeah? So pure man. Glacial as fuck, dude. I'm a bit droned out today, can you tell? I've had one record containing some semblance of groove & rhythm and I'm running out of mental steam - fast. This is a limited white vinyl thang on the Digitalis label. It is a dream-like album, numbering three tracks, spilling with fine acoustic resonance & beauty. I especially dig the manipulated & processed bowed strings on the final movement 'Heartsink' which add a really spiritual dimension, comin' in yer ears like the aural equivalent of a heavenly glade, the morning sun just cracking through the tips of towering pine trees on a June morning. I've just returned to the eponymous opening epic and I'm wanting to take it home, light some incence & lay on my bed smoking some fine illegal substances. The delicious shimmer on this is proper spacing me out. I'm dribbling all over this laptop and thinking of fine grains of sand falling through a lady's fingers & silk drapes. My eyes are getting incredibly sleepy and I've got a ridiculous monged smile on my face. Dave has just brought me a cup of tea, thank fuck for that...

Gordon Ashworth is Concern and this is his
manifesto. "Truth & Distance" is a mini-epic, a minor
masterpiece. Within these sonic walls lies a stunning
landscape, adrift in golden tones and silver siren songs.
Ashworth creates beautiful, shimmering music that defies
categorization. It stands on its own, droning away into
the furthest reaches of the night. Using only acoustic
instrumentation, Ashworth conceives pieces of music in
which resonance and timbre mutate and in the air and
unfold naturally, organically.

Hints of piano glisten like night shadows whispering
through the leaves. Strings are bowed and plucked
into oblivion. Everything is turned into a pile of reverb.
Everyone is a ghost. The title track starts with frayed
edges and continually dials back, trying to not to fall apart.
Ashworth's skill in wrangling discordant sounds out of his
array of acoustics seems to grow as the piece flows along.
Daunting as the seemingly endless layers of droning tones
may be, its the all-enveloping nature of this music that
makes it so engaging. Like hearing Basinski destroy and
rework Peter Broderick's deepest compositions, "Truth &
Distance" feels familiar while sounding new.

As the final, looping piano chords of "Heartsink"
disintegrate into oblovion, Concern has gone all in. This
is music that trades in immediacy for reservation and
restraint. Ashworth is able to combine all these elements
into towering aural monuments that he scatters through
the air and down into the soil. It's all coming up roses this
time.

New vinyl edition features extended cuts of all three
pieces from the original CD, adding 10 minutes of new
music that pushes the album to another level. In addition
there is all new art and a cut by Berlin's D+M.