Loscil-Coast/Range/Arc// (2x12"LP)
$30.00
Label: Kranky Records
Listen: Link
Year (release): 2020
Genre, primary: Dark ambient
Genre, secondary: Ambient
Catalog number: KRANK229LP
Country of origin: Canada
The album was originally released as Coast/Range/Arc. Look at the change in punctuation. The superfluous lower-case spelling actually serves a purpose here; the words are slightly dwarfed by the slashes between them, and the extra two at the end tack on just as much extra grandeur as bonus track “Black Tusk (Descent)” does to the album itself. The original cover looks down on what looks like an endless sheet of ice. The new one stares up at Black Tusk, a mountain not far from Vancouver. The producer visited Black Tusk in 2003 and shot the photo that graces its cover as well as those in the reissue’s accompanying photobook. This context introduces a personal aspect and suggests the prospect of an arduous quest to the listener, especially now that the album is bookended with two variations on “Black Tusk.” We go up one side of the mountain, reach the summit, come back down the other side.