Album Review: Sens Dep - Lush Desolation (2020)
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| Picture Credit: Sens Dep Artwork: "Life Cast of left Forearm and Hand" by Hiram Powers, Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Sens Dep - Lush Desolation
Release Date: November 30, 2020
Label: selfrelease / CD Baby
Format: CD / Digital
Length: 56:20
Genre: Ambient / Noise / Shoegaze
Origin: Melbourne, Australia
The advent season is often regarded to be a period of reflection and calm. Probably, I might see this from my Northern hemisphere- or Central European perspective. And the band we're listening to today is contemporarily facing the beginning of summer since Andrew Yardley, Ben Yardley and Caz Gannell from Sens Dep are Australian. Nevertheless, the trio from Melbourne has a new release out. And it is a very reflective and meditative release I must say.
"Lush Desolation" is a one-hour-long journey through thick thoughts and feelings about the relationship between humankind and its surrounding environment. The experimental sounds were recorded over the last four years. Sens Dep chose special places for these recordings, namely a tin shed, interzones, a hunter's hut in the montains and the wilderness of Tasmania. These places stand for nature, its relation to our kind, and for human estrangement from the environment; a musicked narrative about the development of our culture and us abandoning our roots. It is thick plot full of desolation.
Music-wise, Sens Dep present their narrative in a gloomy, multi-layer arrangement of heavy low-tempo sounds. It feels like fighting oneself through a deep swamp or strng twiners. "Lush Desolation" is an intense journey through the depths of or own thoughts and feelings - and it is not the happy one we are maing our way through here. The drony and noisy Ambient sounds musick mournful self-reflection on the deeds of humankind over its history.
My favourite feature in this dark atmosphere is that it's not only synthetic Drone and Ambient Sens Dep create here. Instead, they also make use of organic instruments adding some beautiful Shoegaze to their sound. As dark as it is, I honesty enjoy this album a lot. "Lush Desolation" perfectly fits a calm evening when you light a candle and watch the stars and/or open a bottle of red wine.
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