Lawrence English has been making records since 2002, and The Rest Is My Ghost arrives through Brisbane’s Room40 with a large cast and a distrustful view of nostalgia. It’s a busy, unsettled piece of electronic and post-classical composition, where low drones and shortwave grit meet Mats Gustafsson’s saxophone, Peter Knight’s trumpet, three trombones and the blunt force of concert bass drum. Tony Buck’s drums and gongs give Acid Nostalgia and Aerial Cable a physical pulse, while gamelan from Lena Ito and Vanessa Tomlinson adds a metallic, ritual edge. The production leaves room for these sounds to rub against each other rather than smoothing them into a single backdrop.
Voices matter here too. Rully Shabara, Madeleine Cocolas and The Australian Voices bring something human and collective to the opening, Eclosion and GhostType, set against guitar, pedal steel, hammer dulcimer and electronics. The track titles point towards cities, vanished lighting and unstable futures, but the music stays tactile, full of impact and abrasion. It will suit listeners drawn to English’s long-form ambient work, experimental composition and the harsher side of Room40, though anyone after soft-focus background music should look elsewhere. The final versions of One Line Sky and Sodium Vapour Halo strip the pieces back into smaller, more exposed forms.
