Remnants – Vacant Corridor MC Found Remains 2019
Remnants are a project I am unfamiliar with, but is a solo project of Ryan Marino who has issued over a dozen releases issued since 2010. While I am not sure how this latest release it compares to earlier output, this is a pro-printed cassette mini-album which features four tracks over 28 minutes.
Being an exercise in minimalist abstracted noise, Vacant Corridor delivers four tracks muted widescreen soundscapes with a forlorn, grey hued and nostalgic atmosphere. Vacant Corridor I displays this aesthetic and in being dour more than overtly dark in mood, the feel is of quiet contemplation. An archaic atmosphere is then implied through the title The Drawing Room, Autumn, 1918, and evoked a series of layered minimal loops deliver shimmering, creaking and crackling textures which ebb and flow throughout, while late in the track a muted melody makes an appearance, which itself seems to bend and warp out of time (akin to a stretched reel to reel tape being played). Vacant Corridor II brings more dusty (and dusky) drones, creaking doors and general haunted muted urban resonances. Into Memory (Stalker) is the final track, where I assume the title is a nod to Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker. With a continuation of the grey hued and archaic tinged atmosphere, muffled echo holds equal position to distant melodic elements including abstracted synth washes, semi-buried sporadic piano chords and late track sparse guitar melody.
Delivering equal parts moody and mysterious (and coupled with an undercurrent seemingly implying existential dread), Vacant Corridor is a subtle but sonically nuanced release. Likewise by effectively replicating the atmosphere and visual aesthetic of Stalker in musical form, makes for a very worthwhile listening experience.
noise receptor 