Jez Burrows / Dept. of Enthusiasm

9. Snow Canons
May 24th, 2020

Steve Roach - Snow Canon
Group Listening - Snow Canon
(File under: music, covers, ambient)

Listen:
steveroach.bandcamp.com/track/snow-canon
grouplistening.bandcamp.com/track/snow-cannon

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Here’s one song served two ways.

‘Snow Canon’ by Steve Roach, recorded in pre-MIDI 1981, is ambient electronic music made from the shiniest bleeps and the softest bloops. It’s a meditative stroll through a synthesised tundra. It’s hold music for calling the cosmos, and when they say ‘your call is important to us,’ it sounds like they really mean it.

‘Snow Canon’ by Group Listening, recorded in 2018, takes the busy precipitation of the original and rearranges it for piano and woodwind. Still icy and elegant, but like watching the tundra from the comfort of a conservatory, the sound of a telephone call that doesn’t need to be answered just yet echoing down the hallway.

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