There’s a sense of freeness to shard mentality. You can feel it breathing, as it moves along at an unhurried pace.
The latest record from Yuin artist e fishpool explores the deepest recesses of their intimate, experimental sound. shard mentality is less percussively textured than their self-titled debut; it instead holds a deep focus on space. Synths roll in gentle waves like the wind, occasionally swelling with big gusts of feeling. Muffled drones speak like invisible voices, humming and pulsing as though charged with electricity.
Life flickers throughout shard mentality. Unlike some ambient musicians, focused on technicality or deliberate unobtrusiveness, e fishpool charges their music with unabashed emotion. There’s a unpretentiousness to a track like ‘EVERYTHING IS APPROPRIATION’, which starts with a sample of blown-out funk mandelão, and ends with the opening drums from ‘Ms. Jackson.’ It recalls the music of Elysia Crampton, where sampling takes on an almost diaristic form; a grasp at solidifying the inherent ephemerality of memory.
“Country burns violently, as children are stole from their beds…cries thick and deep muffles the sound, cry into dirt, inhale insect and choke.” ‘ON DEATH’ is the only track with lyrics on shard mentality, softly spoken under an instrumental that's both solemn but longing, searching. Sometimes only words can honestly capture a truth. But some things are beyond articulation. Luckily, we have that magic of music, communicating those feelings deeply felt, desperately reaching for an outlet.
Words by Lindsay Riley