Aaron Martin & Orla Wren – The Blizzard That Birthed Her

Artist: Aaron Martin & Orla Wren
Title Of Album: The Blizzard That Birthed Her
Year Of Release: 01 dec 2013
Label: FACTURE
Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Modern Classical
Quality: MP3
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Total Time: 00:53:45
Total Size: 123 mb

Tracklist:
1. Five Acre Ladder 06:24
2. Five Acre Ladder (with Aaron Martin) 06:52
3. Five Acre Ladder (with Isnaj Dui) 06:12
4. Five Acre Ladder (Reprise) 04:20
5. Mountains And Wishbones 07:52
6. Mountains And Wishbones (with Aaron Martin) 06:36
7. Mountains And Wishbones (with Isnaj Dui) 04:52
8. Mountians And Wishbones (Reprise) 03:46
9. The Cup of Remembered Things (with Aaron Martin) [bonus track] 06:50

Offered as metaphor and delivered as analogy…
The Blizzard That Birthed Her is the continuing echo of this year’s Home Normal success, Book Of The Folded Forest. Birthed as two original Orla Wren tracks ‘Five Acre Ladder’ and ‘Mountains And Wishbones’ which were recorded in the same session, Tui then worked the cello, bass and vocals of Aaron Martin into two alternative versions of each track, making up the 4 tracks on the 10” vinyl for Facture.
He then offered the same to Isnaj Dui who contributed some flute for him to then create the two versions with her as guest. To complete the companion 8 track letter pressed CD version the two “reprise” versions were created by Tui utilizing parts from the other tracks.

The Blizzard That Birthed Her cannot be called an album in the strictest sense. It consists of two original tracks, each one of which has been recorded four times including two separate takes of each with different collaborators. At their most basic – the opening, unaccompanied blueprint of Five Acre Ladder – they build and swirl on the sparest of electronic melodies over a plateau of drone, creating worlds that are at once misty and earthy. Orla Wren’s individual pieces are each like a single exhalation drawn out and slowed so that every particle of air, every bit of woodland mist, every icy molecule of breath is discernible. And like breaths that are given personality by external forces – tiredness, passion, fear – each of these pieces is markedly different, whilst retaining the overarching character of the species. The atonal bells and wordless vocals on the Aaron Martin take of Five Acre Ladder give the tune a processional, pagan quality, while the flute of Isnaj Dui suggests a subtler, more lithe form of movement. Martin’s cello takes centre stage on his version of the second track, Mountains And Wishbones, which has the most discernible build and fade (or inhalation and exhalation) of anything here.

When a musician’s artistic vision is as singular as that of Orla Wren – the collaborative arm of electro-acoustic soundscaper Tui – it serves little purpose to compare it with other performers. Indeed, The Blizzard That Birthed Her appears to owe as much to sound art, field recording and sculpture as it does to folk, or electronic popular music. In particular, the variety of land art as practiced by Robert Smithson or Richard Long comes to mind. The circular or cyclical nature of these tracks mirrors the use of circles as archetypal shapes in much of Long’s work. And of course the organic side of this music, the idea of growth within nature as a basic constituent of performance or sculpture, is something that Long has been doing throughout his career.

In addition to these eight intriguing and surprisingly filmic compositions we get a bonus track, another recording with Aaron Martin called The Cup Of Remembered Things. Relying on eerie found sounds and the occasional supernatural vocal sample it serves as a delicate coda to an impressive record that wears the ambition of its concept lightly.