Memory Piece by The Lonely Bell (Review)
If you look at any photos of the Isle of Lewis, which is located off Scotland’s west coast in the Outer Hebrides, it’s easy to imagine its landscape cast over by perennially gray clouds and constantly swept by the elements. It looks desolate and forlorn, but no less beautiful and magnificent, and with its stone circles, even a wee bit otherworldly. In other words, it’s the exact sort of place you’d imagine a dark ambient composer to call home, which happens to be the case for Ali Murray, aka The Lonely Bell.
It’s impossible not to hear, or at least sense, the sweep of wind and rain throughout Memory Piece, Murray’s latest title. He’s certainly a prolific artist, having released nearly twenty albums, EPs, and collaborations since his 2015 self-titled debut. And though its 30 unbroken minutes might seem daunting at first, Memory Piece is a solid entry point into The Lonely Bell’s melancholy atmospherics.
Murray’s drones might initially seem static and impenetrable, but much like Poemme’s Soft Ice, those qualities are precisely what makes them so engrossing. Moreover, the patient listener will eventually begin to hear variations and gradations in the greyscale backdrop, ebbing and flowing like dark tides lapping against rocky island shores. As the song progresses, other elements including piano melodies and guitar filaments slowly make their ghostly presence known, albeit in so soft and slight a manner that you might have a hard time believing they’re actually there. But even at their most defined, those elements remain fundamentally obscured by Murray’s fathomless drones — which feels apropos rather than frustrating or unsatisfying.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, memories, nostalgia, and the passage of time are major themes throughout The Lonely Bell’s catalog. As such, an attentive listen of Memory Piece feels not unlike trying to grasp after a memory or remember a dream. Even as the song grows louder, denser, and more insistent in its final moments, some fundamental aspect of Murray’s dark ambience remains forever haunting and out of reach… which is as it should be.