One listen.
This was written almost immediately after the prior one and only shared now due to having other stuff I needed to take care of. I think that, as it was written so closely to the prior one it sort of follows in a similar way. What I wrote is more representative of the song but it’s also less so, in a sense. That stretching is still there and in places it takes the writing away from the song.
Spencer Nilsen’s “Ridge Water” is from “Ecco the Dolphin“, the soundtrack for the Sega CD version of Ecco the Dolphin.
I hope you enjoy.
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A low harshness draws out and a steady beat pulses away whilst synth and bass draw into something menacing, or at least it seems menacing. There is a sense of fragility in there, but everything is so firm and that harshness repeats, and the fragility seems so distant.
Seemingly things begin to pick up, or at least move faster, and soon everything moves away from the menace. The fragility comes forward and reveals something beautiful in these sounds and their space. There’s something wondrous here. There is little time to focus on it, but it is wondrous and grand, and it relieves as it cradles, but it unfortunately is not too long before a return to the menacing form.
The space feels like it is approaching being oppressive, and all proceeds along, forcing away, striking until once more the grand openness returns. Extra percussion shines and shimmers away as sound expands and expresses the wonder of it all, and it’s a relieving space.
It almost seems like there will be one more return to the menacing form, but instead the sounds find a rest in that moment, and the strings sink, and the song ends.


