Postcards From Hereafter

Belgian outfit Razen’s decade-plus-long quest for the minimalist medieval infinite feels like it aligns, now, quite neatly with composers like Sarah Davachi and Kali Malone; there’s a similar interest in the weight of tone, the texture of drone, the hesitations of silence. The religiosity Razen gesture towards isn’t dogmatic; they use a cathedral space for recording here, but the better to embrace the potential of the 17th-century organ with specific tuning. It’s the bedrock of Postcards From Hereafter, but the magic comes with the way the group, inviting some friends to join in on the recordings, carefully negotiate, and improvise around that particular tonality; from the huffing purr of the hurdy-gurdy, to the childlike plaint of a whispering bass clarinet, everything is given its rightful space here, the result being a series of slow-motion fades… Play David Munrow at 8 rpm and feed it through Andrew Chalk’s reverb unit, and you’ve got some idea of what’s happening here.