Wanderwelle – Ghosts Beneath The Brine

Ghosts in the deep: the Dutch duo Wanderwelle conclude their trilogy of albums on the ecological impact of climate change on the seas. They explore environmental destruction in coastal regions, on land and in water, through electroacoustic means chosen specifically for each record. After old cavalry trumpets on Black Clouds Above the Bows and a church organ damaged by a landslide on the Dutch coast on All Hands Bury the Cliffs at Sea, J.P.A. van Dulm and A.G.A. Bartels use, on Ghosts Beneath the Brine, cymbals that they submerged in seawater over an extended period.

Using bows or mallets, they played these cymbals at various stages of decomposition through corrosion. As on the previous albums, further instruments are added here too: cello, guitar, voice, synthesiser and field recordings. The use of saltwater has its own consequence, since this album is devoted to the dying of marine life through overfishing, warming and acidification.

Wanderwelle find a musical balance for this between the brokenness of the shrill, screaming cymbal tones, the quiet lament voiced by the suggested melodies of the other instruments, and the eeriness announced in deep percussion strikes or diffusely reverberating sounds. Taken on their own, these elements would probably be too little, or too much; together, they produce a fragile beauty with which the duo defy the threat.