Sciencevision‘s Brandon Dunlap recorded E.S.R. while isolated in an empty house in West Hartford, CT, sampling the sounds of doorknobs, floorboards, and running water to create a rickety, psychedelic atmosphere.
The music on E.S.R. is both stripped-down and wildly inventive, its ramshackle acoustic strums nestled in beds of ambient drones, haunted vocal loops, and clattering ephemera. “Wither Vine” is one of the more straightforward tracks on the project, featuring a guitar figure that winds its way between resonant, open-tuned chords and dissonant spiderwebs of notes. Dunlap’s hushed vocals, working in tandem with the music, recall a more ragged Nick Drake, with lush strings replaced by grainy crackles. The effect is mesmerizing, and pairs especially well with the ghostly album art, printed in risograph form by Greenfield, MA’s Looky Here print shop.
Check out more from Brandon Dunlap and follow his Astral Research label on Instagram
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