Lung Cycles

Sprawling and captivating ambient folk, miles above most bedroom Bandcamp music in this vein. Originally the solo project of Ben Lovell (Rochester, NY), this is now a seven-piece including previously KZSU-featured artists like Naps, The National Park Service, and Ylayali. Tape sounds, soft and resonant guitars, gentle and airy but anxious singing, waves of drone, occasional floods of static. The pieces unwind patiently. They’re epic, but not in an ostentatious or self-announcing way. It really reminds me of Sparklehorse, though it’s also like a deepening of Jason Molina/Songs: Ohia’s more textured stuff. Also RIYL Advance Base, Karima Walker, Talk West, Z Tapes. I should make the full disclosure that Ben’s released music of mine, but even without any context this is one of my very favorites of 2018. Favorites: 1+2, 3. FCC WARNING: 5.

1. *(10:29)—Very basic and slow drum machine beat, lovely winding guitars, faded singing. Late-night weightiness. Starts moody and soft, gets increasingly ominous and grand and noisy. Fades into track 2.
2. *(7:01)—Play with track 1. Instrumental. Lovely slow fingerpicked guitar. Soft tape and field recording hiss, bird sounds, gentle background drones.
3. *(4:34)—Instrumental. Very slow, shadowy guitar interplay. Forest walk music. Somewhere between Bedhead and Loren Connors’s quiet stuff.
4. (12:04)—Soft hiss, spidery fingerpicking, droning low end. Gradual build to a staticky middle, melodic looping finish.
5. (10:03)—FCC WARNING (a*****e). Very slow, resonant electric guitar. Very gentle, some ambient noise, drifting piano and guitar.