Instrumental music has a particular magic: the ability to conjure entire landscapes, emotions, and narratives without resorting to words. Minneapolis musician Steve Seel understands this quality well, and he explores it beautifully on Evidence, the third album under his Dismantlists name.
By day, Seel is a classical music DJ at Minnesota Public Radio; by night, an accomplished architect of atmospheric sound. Sitting comfortably within the ambient, cinematic and post-rock tradition, the album brings to mind the likes of Fripp & Eno, Stars of the Lid and Eluvium, with shades of modern classical composers Jóhann Jóhannsson and Gavin Bryars. It also echoes Brian Eno’s iconic Music for Airports in its ability to work holistically rather than merely present a collection of compositions.
Across seven tracks, Evidence drifts between the hauntingly evocative and the radiantly warm. ‘When You Run Away But Can Still See the House’ opens on billowing sonic clouds, gently drawing us into its opaque, all-encompassing world, and ‘Overnight Parking’ captures something of the eerie, deserted, street-life world after dark, when familiar places take on an altogether different character.
‘A Shifting Band of Rain’ is wonderfully evocative, conjuring images of sunlight breaking through after a storm, the sky still carrying its darker shades. At the same time, shafts of light suggest better weather ahead as metaphorical gloom and optimism occupy the same patch of sky. ‘She Walks in Green’, meanwhile, shimmers with sheens of the utmost delicacy.
Instrumental music is a curious thing, seeking to present ideas and cast images without the lyrical component to walk you directly to the artist’s intended conclusion. It speaks via mood rather than melody, using sonic feeling to converse. Yet it does converse, perhaps at a more subconscious level. Because the music’s meaning has to meet the listener’s thoughts halfway, their interpretation is shaped as much by their own thoughts, outlook, and experience as by the person making the music; it can have a different conversation with each of the myriad listeners.
Website
Bandcamp
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
