Narratives of erosion. A demise of forms cast against the abrasive metals of progress. Sombre drones rumble beneath clouds of dust and ruin. Amidst this desolation rise and fall the corrosive melodies of force against substance. Of expression suffocated by oppression.

These compositions, these recordings, by Imperial Valley hold the listener like the distant gazes of lives drowned in sepia, lost among discarded dreams. Here those lives are resurrected - excavated in sound - to live once more.

I had to chose Our Light in Ashes as this was the track (aside from it being the first) that drew me into the undulating ocean of the album. I use ‘ocean’ as there are subtle undertows flooding through the tracks, threading them together. Warms waves of sound reaching toward quiet shores of solitude basking under silvered outlines sketched by the moon. Compositions such as this provide a soundtrack as I write, the mood becomes words. This album plays continuously as I write. An absolute triumph!