Some things just come into your life at the perfect time, and Almost An Island – the new pastoral ambient trio consisting of Idyllwild Pine Cove-based Kenneth James Gibson and Los Angeles’ James and Cynthia Bernard – is one of them.
All three artists have spent decades entrenched in various corners of the experimental sound world: James Bernard, a constant in the Los Angeles underground, releasing music both in a solo capacity and in collaboration (most notably alongside bvdub). So too his wife Cynthia, inflecting shoegaze with ambient-based composition under the marine eyes moniker, while Gibson has boasted a career harnessing glittery ambient drone under various guises, as well as pivoting to more conventional sound worlds where his band Bell Gardens (which featured the late Brian McBride) unfurled gospel-inspired alt-country to great effect.
The trio’s influences come together as Almost An Island – a collaboration that almost had to happen, and on their self-titled debut album (which, exclusive to Sun 13, ahead of tomorrow’s release, you can listen to in full below), the band has delivered something that moves with grace. There’s a borderless nature to these recordings. The production, glacial-like, as the trio finds expansiveness through the lens of minimalism.
Despite the cohesion of these pieces, each has its own language. Opening composition, Quadrivium, filled with hushed reverb likened to an angel’s whisper from the heavens. On An Ode to Nothing, the guitars are are like an oceanic sparkle, and with David Cuetter’s pedal steel throughout the album, here alongside Cynthia’s ghostly vocal echoes, Almost An Island unveils a brand of spiritual post-rock.
Almost An Island - Almost An IslandIt’s not the only time Almost An Island threatens to remain in this milieu. Wide Open (In Two Parts) is almost a fully formed rock song. Led by syncopated percussion and searching guitars, it builds majestically like the sun creeping over the horizon. Then there’s In Light Of, which sees Gibson on vocals, pulling apart the Bell Gardens aesthetic for an exquisite form of slow-motion ambient rock.
On Perfume Gloves, Gibson’s film score and television repertoire influences the piece, and led by Cynitha’s dream-laden wordless vocalisations, a gentle, uplifting moodscape offers new possibilities. And these feed into What Got Us To Our Feet where Almost An Island reach the zenith. Cynthia’s powerful Julianna Barwick-like vocal, weaving through arching string arrangements and melodic inflections of pedal steel that is ultimately peace at altitude.
That tenderness continues with Lonesome Sound. A series of multi-layered drones reminiscent of Gibson’s kindred spirits, Stars of the Lid. So too Palo Verde – a stirring interlude of acoustic-led instrumentation showering open space with cosmic fairy dust, and it’s that open space where Almost An Island remains with Promise To Fade. A cavernous dreamscapes that is slowly overridden by sullen strings, it’s like an instruction from the bottom of a canyon.
While each piece has its own idiosyncrasies, equally – as strange as it may sound – Almost An Island feels like one full piece. A journey of ebbs and flows, mirroring the realities of life, and what Almost An Island achieve here is the soundtrack to it. Gibson has always possessed this trait, and alongside James and Cynthia Bernard, the trio have carefully crafted something with cadence. So evocative, it melts the heart, to the point where there’s nothing else out there quite like it.
Almost An Island is out tomorrow via Past Inside the Present. Pre-order from Bandcamp.
