Heathered Pearls, the moniker of producer
Jakub Alexander, progressed from textural, emotionally evocative ambient sounds on 2012 debut
Loyal into more rhythmically informed tracks on subsequent releases. Third album
Cast pushes
Alexander's vision forward yet again, not just by dialing back drum sounds to make more space for implied rhythmic impressions and negative space, but by introducing the element of spoken word to a handful of tracks.
Alexander's slow-blooming instrumentals make up the majority of the album, with tracks like "Caveat Emptor" and "Pain Tolerance" expertly arranging steadily shifting flows of sub-bass and overlapping cinematic loops and sequences. The beat-free nature of these tracks makes them appear wide open, but actually disguises the complexity of their construction. The romantic, sometimes maudlin character of the earliest
Heathered Pearls material has matured on
Cast, with brief interlude-length pieces like "Faith for the Weak" and "Utica" hinting faintly at emotional undercurrents before evaporating, breaking up the murky, distant demeanor that marks much of the album. The several tracks that include audio of spoken word emphasize how much more cerebral and complex
Cast feels compared to early chapters of
Alexander's work. The warm but weary loops of "Basic Needs" underscore what sounds like a spoken diary entry or verbalized letter from
Nick Murphy, the artist once known as
Chet Faker.
Murphy's disjointed thoughts mirror the dreamlike swim of the instrumental, drifting calmly with no need for an implicit conclusion. On "What Else Do You Want?," one of the album's few beat-driven songs,
Baltra talks about separating art from the artist, and elsewhere on
Cast,
Danny Scales,
Terrence Dixon, and
Krzysztof Wodiczko all contribute spoken pieces that range from poetic recitations to casual reflections.
Heathered Pearls' moody atmospheres grow deeper and more intricate on
Cast, and
Alexander utilizes the spoken word elements sparingly enough to fit them tastefully into the album's larger emotional statement. It's an enormous step forward for the project, managing to maintain the floating formlessness required of the best ambient music while at the same time being the most thoughtful, challenging, and personality-rich music
Heathered Pearls has made up until this point. ~ Fred Thomas