GUITARWORKS II is the captivating new album from Mortal Prophets, the New York-based project of composer and visual artist John Beckmann. The first GUITARWORKS album caught our ears in early 2024 with its gorgeously dynamic atmospherics — and GUITARWORKS II continues to immerse with its integration of ambient and guitar-led beauty. A number of influences, from Brian Eno’s ambient experimentation to Robert Fripp’s loop-based minimalism and Jon DeRosa’s ambient noir, pair with Beckmann’s soundscape-crafting inventiveness for a fantastic listening experience.
A texturally impactful minimalism flows throughout the production, embracing spaciousness and track-by-track sonic uniqueness, while sharing thematically in several facets. Each of the album’s tracks are named after a pre-Columbian archeological site, an aptly meditative choice considering the release’s overarching thematic explorations of “silence, memory, and transcendental experience.” Beckmann continues: “GUITARWORKS II is about attunement. It’s music made in response to the absence of words, to the power of landscape, and to the mythic residue that lingers in forgotten places. Like Eno and Cluster’s work, it’s about the space between the notes as much as the notes themselves.”
“Chaco Canyon” opens the album with a starry-eyed intrigue, weaving sporadic guitar twinkling with patiently unfolding precision; gentle rhythmic ruminations ease in occasionally, like a hint of life on a calming yet desolate planet. The ensuing “Cahokia Mounds” is ethereal and lulling in its more warming folk-forward familiarity, embracing a twangy sunset-fit feeling rather than some of the textured pursuits elsewhere, like the enveloping “Moundville,” where twangy guitars are instead set within a layered assortment of chilly instrumentation and effects.
Another standout, “Mystery Hill” invokes a touch of psychedelia in its phaser-y charm, while the subsequent “Chimney Rock” exudes a foreboding, cinematic enthrallment that traverses definitively in the dark ambient realm. Gentle guitar strums intertwine with ambient caressing for another audible treat in “Makauwahi Cave.” From start to finish, GUITARWORKS II is another thoroughly inviting success from Mortal Prophets.
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We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
