Need a break from holiday music? Check out Phillip Wilkerson and Chris Russell’s Dark Measures, out now on Spotted Peccary Music!
Press release by Beth Ann Hilton
Established, prolific sound artists Phillip Wilkerson and Chris Russell come together from different sides of ambient electronic music; whereas Wilkerson favors lighter passages, Russell favors the dark and abstract—yet these styles blend seamlessly on Dark Measures, their latest collaboration. This new release retains the dreamlike atmosphere of their 2014 work Vague Traces while ferrying the listener to a more contemplative space. Russell describes Vague Traces as “a sunset album” and Dark Measures as “a nighttime adventure.”
Overview: The spirit of adventure hums beneath these eight compositions. The pensive drift of “Unopened Doors” evokes a long moonlit walk as its reverberant glimmers mirror the watching stars. “Deep Lane” is the sound of uncharted territory; wistful textures swell at every turn, but rumbling drones flare below like the breath of some great beast—a hidden danger just around the corner. On “Myriad Visions,” electronic pulses, crafted from a computer-based virtual “modular” synthesizer, gallop through a maze of cosmic tones, stuttering like thunder interrupted, beckoning the listener onward into an exhilarating and alien space. Penultimate track “Unbroken Devotion” builds to a zenith of yearning, bright as a pillar of moonlight in a forest clearing, before an ominous hum clouds away the light. Finale “Faring Forward” ends the adventure in a place of serenity as its panoramic warmth expands like a sunrise.
“All my music comes from a meditative and contemplative place within awareness and presence,” reflects Wilkerson. “I don’t necessarily feel like I create music, but rather music is created through me by releasing my consciousness and willful direction of the music and just letting it flow through the channel of open awareness. Attempting to put the process into words feels like a disservice to how it actually happens.”
Chris Russell
An ambient music artist who has been releasing albums since 2009, Chris Russell finds inspiration from both the simplicity of nature and the vast infinity of the universe. Using the studio as his instrument, he plays software and hardware synthesizers, bass guitar, and various indigenous instruments to produce textures.
Phillip Wilkerson
Phillip Wilkerson was raised in a musical family and taught to appreciate and create music from a young age. He plays piano, guitar, and drums, and in his mid-twenties began experimenting with synthesizers. He has been recording and releasing contemplative soundscapes, spacious atmospheres, and electronic drones and drifts since 2005 on a number of net labels, including Earth Mantra.
For more information and music samples, visit Bandcamp.