Droplets brings together double bassist Dominic Lash with composer Eva-Maria Houben, Taylan Susam, and improvisers Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes. At its heart is Lash’s outdoor recording of Houben’s “nachtstück,” where fragile double bass lines merge with the unpredictable sounds of wind, rain, and the wider world. The bass’s deep resonance shares the soundspace with falling rain, creating a duo of musician and nature that is both visually and sonically evocative - every performance choice becomes newly shaped by environment, silence, and the gentle drama of each uncontrollable event.
Other tracks on the album include realizations of Susam’s delicately notated scores and a trio improvisation. Throughout, the music privileges a sense of restraint - each gesture, scrape, or bowed fragment emerges from silence with unforced clarity. In improvisation, separation between percussion, electronics, and strings blurs into a tapestry of soft contrasts and merged timbres; sounds hover and then dissolve, always unhurried. The approach is neither distant nor austere - rather, it’s defined by attentive care, modest means, and an openness to collaboration and context.
Critics highlight Droplets as an emblem of the Wandelweiser aesthetic, where every sound “is coaxed out of silence and falls back into it, like a wavering fleck of light suddenly emerging, then disappearing back into shadow again”. It’s music that asks the listener to inhabit small shifts, unexpected detail, and the boundary between composed and found sound. The album becomes a meditation on listening itself - a convergence of intention, happenstance, and the slow unfolding of presence.
