Richard Skelton – Marking Time (Reissue)

Lush, sparse, atonal mood music (the mood being mostly melancholy) with acoustic instruments, generally light repetition of vague melodic sketches droning ad infinitum. It feels like the bleak-yet-blissful acoustic ambience of Barn Owl with some lo-fi orchestral accompaniment in the vein of Stars of the Lid. This British minimalist’s first release under his own name is “a meditation on loss and the passing of time” dedicated to his late wife, and a sense of solemnity pervades throughout the entire album. Pick any track, or you might even be tempted to play the whole CD at 4am: it is a single cohesive, depressing, and epic experience—not for the faint of heart.

1. Calm, droning, dissonant bowed strings
2. Schizophrenic strings and meditative, folksy Lickets-esque guitar
3. Hushed bowed strings and light, airy piano
4. Gentle echoing piano chords contrasting with scattered string chatter
5. Slow-motion atonal droning, almost no melodic variation whatsoever—sustained, gorgeous, brilliant. BEST TRACK
6. Minor-key piano chords; restrained screeching and scraping violin; and gentle folksy guitar picking.
7. Fingerpicked guitar ostinato and echoing, funereal cello
8. (bonus track) Feels like a summation of the rest of the album’s motifs... overture, maybe?