Cassette Review: Rorqual "sei/ci" (Wood Between Worlds)

[$4 // Edition of 50 // https://woodbetweenworlds.bandcamp.com/album/sei-ci]

Rorqual begins this cassette with a quiet, ambient drone sound.   I begin to wonder if it is going to be this way the entire cassette but as soon as I weigh the possibilities it shifts towards more of a sound of slight skips which could be in space.   There is a definite sonar vibe coming out next which leads me to believe we are in the water somehow.  Though not sharp, there is a feedback sound next which just comes blaring out loudly.   It has the intensity of a fog horn though it might be muted from the full on sound you might hear on a barge, but still furthers my notion we are at sea.

Waves begin to crash and static whooshes through howls.   Harmonious tones end Side A, as if they are church music, and Side B opens with a cutting pattern in a beat loop which becomes quieter waves and I feel as if we are back in the ocean.   There is a deep bass and then the sonar returns, which once again reenforces my belief.   I begin to recognize that the theme of this cassette is being lost at sea and while I must not recommend losing yourself in the ocean in order to fully experience it (Because that is wreckless) I think that these sounds more than provide you with the experience.

My best advice to listen to this cassette is to do so in or around water but not in the sense where you are not insured a safe return.    Sit in your bathtub full of water or just go in the shower even.   A swimming pool or perhaps even a beach would suffice just as well.   But, really, if you want to just sit on the comfort of your couch or bed and listen to this one it should give you enough of an experience to make you believe that you are surrounded by water even though you are not.    Something between "Life of Pi" and every movie created where a ship is in a storm, Rorqual draws more on a calm sea than a violent one and thus this also becomes a perfect and essential relaxation piece.