36, Black Swan

*50 copies limited edition* The transoceanic partnership of 36 (UK) and Black Swan (US) yielded one of Past Inside The Present’s first truly essential releases in 2019, just a year into the label’s existence. In Four Parts succinctly establishes a beautiful but shadowy gravitas that is core to the PITP catalog, and that each artist has explored throughout successive releases in numerous, genre-defining ways. We are proud to present a limited, black vinyl reissue of this long-out-of-print suite for a growing listenership of dark ambient fans and our faithful supporters alike.

Straight away, “Part I” establishes both artists’ knack for grim, elegiac beauty, as Black Swan’s battered cassette loops flicker through 36’s stratospheric drift, and an aching sense of nostalgia hovers in the buzzing haze of a smoggy sunset. “Part II” forms a densely layered harmonic world in miniature, as slowly descending piano notes fall around sustained choral voices and adagio strings, equally mournful and reverent. It’s the closest this set gets to hopefulness, but is still tempered by a wordless emotional heft that can only be summoned by the most world-weary craftsmanship.

On “Part III”, Black Swan’s signature soot and static rise and recede around a simple, 3-note theme, as orchestral elements list and warble on an uneasy, storm-plagued sea, staggering toward a rocky shore. “Part IV”, the longest section of the suite, ties together the themes and textures explored across the previous three: decaying tape loops, knotty drones, subterranean bass rumbles, majestic synth reverberations, and towering, ecstatic grace. One hopes this is what the apocalypse sounds like, whether we are swallowed in time by the crimson sun, or in the short term by our own poisonous faults.

In Four Parts’ iconic and disquieting cover art, created by Nathan Abels, features a herd of semi-silhouetted rabbits in mid-stride, a visual allegory of innocence and dread that perfectly suits the album’s contrasts. Fittingly, in most of their works, 36 and Black Swan don’t often deal in the peaceful resolution that is the purview of many of their ambient peers; instead, they offer captivating, open-ended narratives that extend well beyond the borders of the frame. As we reflect on the dizzying pace of changes and upheavals that have come to bear since its initial release, 36 and Black Swan’s debut collaboration continues to serve as a concise, compelling, and timeless source of commiseration.