Dana Schechter – the one-woman, multi-instrumental whirlwind
behind the Insect Ark moniker – makes music ready-built for rumination. “Portal/Well”, Schechter’s full-length debut
is a beautiful, droning mass of sound. Having served time as bassist in M.
Gira’s Angels of Light, the easy logline in would be to describe her as a
“one-woman Swans”, and there are certainly some similarities. Quiet passages thrum and build to walls of
Swans-like noise, and the percussion is plodding, hypnotic and cymbal-heavy
like Gira’s best work. What sets this
apart, however, is Schecter’s masterful lap steel. Wielding the sounds it makes like a weapon,
her fluid lines buzz and sweep, creating a swelling counterpoint to the
claustrophobic arrangements.
Other than the brief punctuation of two 90-second long
interludes, the album is filled with long, brooding “songs” that highlight
Schecter’s compositional prowess. Songs
stretch and contract (a trick one is wont to assume she picked up under Gira’s
tutelage) and evolve from rumbles in the darkness to full-on wails of terror, sometimes
slowly and often not. The titular opening track is likely the most
user-friendly way in, and that ain’t saying a lot…unfolding over 7 minutes,
it’s a harrowing and beautiful summation of everything that Schechter is
capable of. Contrasted to that is the
serenity of album-closer, “Low Moon”, all sustained orchestration and buzzing
strings punctuated by a couple of simple electronic bells. It’s kind of
breathtaking. Give yourself over to Insect Ark’s doom-laden explorations and
you will come out the other side a believer.
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