Circles

[fumi]

 

These are the kind of sounds I would take with me to a marine trench. I’m not going to visit one, because I’m not a marine biologist, but Circles music makes me think of unfathomable depths, as if below their electronic sounds are yet more sounds I can’t hear, at anti-altitudes I could never know. “Surface de Glace” begins on a lovely, subdued sustain with melodies swimming between. “Target” is both chill and panicked at once, with scattered guitar debris and a heady ‘80s baseline that you might be able to trace into the newly vintage pop-ambient works of CFCF. A monolithic vocal rises out like it’s just air, rather than a person breathing it. It’s all so far away, it’s all down there.

I can see why Circles weren’t popular in their time: their music is rather haunted and extremely meandering, which are two things that couple together for maximum unease. Now, though, this kind of ambient spook is welcomed with open arms, the lo-fi twanging electronics of “Frog Factory Magic” similar enough to a Ghost Box production in terms of their kosmische calamity. Even the percussive sounds of “Digger” are embedded with ghosts, sounding far-away and grey among the swirl of samples and electronics. It’s like the opposite of SatNav: you have not, nor will you ever, reach your destination. It’s just over there, though.

Norman Records: https://www.normanrecords.com/records/159443-circles-structures-unreleased-material-19851989-