Woven Qualm – From The Grey Havens

Green Records and Tapes

Woven Qualm is a new one of Knox Mitchell’s (Lidless Eye, The Bloodletters, Night Court) forays into sound creation, and it seems to be a project that focuses on more calm and slow moving ideas.

The first thing that strikes me about this tape is the overarching sense of loneliness. This bubbling sound – of what I can only imagine is burned and sped up tape – makes the tape sound so dirty and aged, like something that you would find at the bottom of a swamp. Odd harmonies of flutes and hums, sag in and out of frame, and occasionally flare out into shrieks that back away into the hums they were before. Side B transforms into a different kind of beast than A. The sounds of cicadas buzz the air. Knocks on wood loop over and build a faulty rhythm. Side B feels more in touch with reality than A. A felt like a ceremony, B feels more like the product. It’s a super visual experience, something seems off the entire tape.

I have only one outstanding problem with this tape, mostly being that side B has a few times where this white noise push of anticipation that comes up , but it occasionally cuts out in one of the stereo channels and breaks the momentum that it carries. The sound generates this suspense that really adds a lot to the whole composition, and then it feels flawed and awkward when one the cut outs happens.

This tape is dark, nuanced, and has a very deep palate of sound. The presentation is what you have come to know and love from Green Records, skewed images, black and white art, colored paper. Definitely a solid tape.

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