“Black Desert” by Western Skies Motel

Back in 2016, Western Skies Motel released Settlers, a highly evocative album of ambient post-rock and folk that, as I wrote in my review, “instantly brings to mind images of the Nebraska Sandhills, of vast fields of prairie grass punctuated by rivers, of land as beautiful as it is (by turns) barren and verdant.”

Western Skies Motel, aka René Gonzalez Schelbeck, essentially went silent following Settlers’ release, though, with only occasional social media updates. Thus, it was a very pleasant surprise when Schelbeck suddenly unveiled a new album titled Trails last month.

Trails evokes the same windswept, barren-yet-glorious landscapes that were explored on Settlers, only in more stark and minimal detail. That is, until the album’s penultimate track. As befitting its name, “Black Desert” is brooding and ominous, with Jakob Høyer’s plodding drums and Schelbeck’s Morricone-esque drones and guitars conjuring up epic stories of survival and violence as only could be found in the American West.