[Alice]

Originally Posted by cork_soaker

nivhek aka grouper aka liz harris
after its own death / walking in a spiral towards the house


i can admit to being a tad peeved and somewhat amused to discover that three of the four lengthy tracks on this album amount to what sounds like xylophone improv night at Dave's House of Reverb.

but then i do appreciate its artfulness, it's lack of structure and convention, it's unexpectedness. it's a beautiful mood piece that invites and invokes ever-deepening reflection as the album progresses — that is, if one approaches in a frame of mind prepared to take that sort of journey. it can turn a commute, for example, into a koyaanisqatsi-esque experience, wherein watching the newly green hills, the freeway traffic, the hovering fog, the stroboscopic passing of concrete pillars — all from the window of a train shooting straight through the middle of it all — becomes an experience draped in woozy existential strangeness and curiosity. but i'd guess it would also pair nicely with just about any prolonged episode of quiet observation.

i've found myself wanting to be drawn down repeatedly into the world this piece offers. it's pretty and dark there, without feeling oppressive or threatening. i wouldn't blame anyone for feeling that an hours' worth of echo-y vibraphone is as presumptuous as this review. but regardless, it makes for an enchanting experience if you let it.


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Thanks for writing this review. I've heard a little Grouper and loved it. I've been meaning to check out more of her music ever since. I kept hoping she'd play a show near Portland while I lived there but no such luck. I'll have to carve out some time for quiet observation and listen to this. I'm thinking a slow walk through the woods might be fitting