S​.​T​.​L​.​A.

There are moments on s.t.l.a. that, mostly when played on vinyl, sound like the physical record is ripping itself apart. Underneath the soft drones and plinking guitars and banjos of Gordon Ashworth’s creating, there are crackling noises that feel like flesh is being torn open. And yet the mood, terse at times, is oddly comforting. Like most great ambient works, it works as both the musical wallpaper innovator Brian Eno intended it to be, and a portal into hidden layers of noise and sonic manipulation. Gordon is a true original, finding new paths through a genre sometimes thought to offer no more surprises.