Nicholas Szczepanik - Dear Dad (Goat Eater Arts / Basses Frequences, 2010)

Nicholas Szczepanik - Part 2: Forgive To Forget


Nicholas Szczepanik has got his shit together. Just last year, he released The Chiasmus, which made it onto my Top 10 Drone Albums list of 2009. He also runs the infallible SRA label. And now he's already got another disc of intimate brilliance called Dear Dad out on both Goat Eater Arts and Basses Frequences.

"Part 1: When I'm No Longer Afraid Of You" is absolutely stunning. You start out in a black hole, seeing and hearing nothing. It is the very sound of silence. As you edge closer beyond the event horizon, you can see an infinitesimally small dot of light, a star trillions of light years away, and you can hear the dust of space. You focus your entire energy on that tiny star as you drift towards it and it slowly grows in size and volume. Eons pass, and before you know it, it comes to encompass your entire field of view, endlessly bright and deafeningly loud. You float on the outer edge, basking in its unfathomably glorious static, blissfully unaware of anything else. Time stops. Universes are born.

The shorter part 2, "Forgive To Forget," is less dynamic, with a dense foundation of hypno-organ that moves like the tide while organic synths shine on the wave crests. Wonderful body immersing beauty.

Dear Dad is a letter from Szczepanik to his father in music form. Do we know what he's trying to say? Maybe. Does it matter? Maybe not. The sounds might affect you more emotionally if you have that knowledge, but it's by no means necessary, and Dear Dad is going to be every bit as gorgeous either way.