Album Review: Simmons and Schuster - Simmons and Schuster (2021)
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| Picture Credit: Simmons and Schuster |
Simmons and Schuster - Simmons and Schuster
Release Date: September 30, 2021
Label: selfrelease
Format: Digital
Length: 44:42
Genre: Dark Ambient / Cinematic Post Rock
Origin: Havertown, PA, USA
The album on hand is the first full-length release of the collaboration between Marc Schuster and Timothy Simmons. The minimalist album title "Simmons and Schuster" shall not raise the assumption that this seven-track release is shallow or simple. On the contrary! Simmons and Schuster hereby present a 45-minute sonic journey to the deepest, darkest, and most remote spaces of human (sub-)consciousness, of our galaxy, and of everything beyond. The album was recorded in August 2021 in Marc Schuster's basement studio before it underwent some intense editing and overdubbing. MIDI sequences, live recorded drums, a bass guitar, and a Electro Harmonix Mel 9 Tape Replay Machine were the major instruments used during this recording session. There is one exception, but we will focus on that later.
The seven instrumental tracks create a deeply cinematic atmosphere and could easily be used to emphasize pictures of outer space, of everything that can only be seen through a high quality microscope, of ocean depths even unknown to James Cameron, or of unpopulated regions such as tundras, desert or the perpetual ice.
While tracks such as 'Tadpoles' with its driving bass line can roughly be categorized somewhere withing the realms of Cinematic Post Rock, on other tracks (e.g. 'Murky Depths) Simmons and Schuster create atmospheric and ethereal Dark Ambient or Drone sounds comparable to the music by Saturndust (only withtout the Doom Metal impact).
And then, there is that one track that is different to the rest of the album in multiple ways. It is the album's final track 'Ralph Waldo Steps In' which originally was an improvisation by Timothy Simmons recorded way earlier than the remaining tracks. Shortly before the album was released, Marc Schuster added a string arrangement to this piece. Fortunately, this editing does not cover the final sequence of the track in which you can hear one of Timothy Simmons' children entering the studio door. Thus, the artistic work of the musician and his real life beautifully interact on this track which is dedicated to philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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