Andrew Ostler - ’Dots On A Disk Of Snow’ (Limited Edition Splatter Vinyl LP)

Andrew Ostler’s fourth album for the Expert Sleepers label combines his previous drone and Berlin school work with an adventurous mix of modern classical, dub, and even jazz.

Electronics are still very much in evidence, but now they’re in equal partnership with Ostler’s wind playing and his new found passion for string arrangement. Indeed, on the album’s title track it’s a full three minutes before a synthesizer makes any appearance at all.

Whereas on previous releases Ostler has focussed on one wind instrument (bass clarinet on Crossing The Line, contrabass clarinet on Rolling Like A Bullet, saxophone on Four Drones For Saxophone And Modular Synthesizer), on this album he throws a smorgasbord of reed and brass instruments into the mix, resulting in a wonderfully varied, yet harmonious, sound palette.

In his liner notes, Ostler states how the pieces were constructed around improvisations, with the other instruments added to flesh out the harmonies. The opener “Tunes Blown Tremulous in Glass”, with its shifting canon of string parts, recalls the occasionally difficult harmonies of Arvo Pärt. The title track “(Soundless As) Dots on a Disk of Snow” takes the same material and presents it in two different moods - first, a tentative, slightly melancholy meditation, and then a sudden explosion into major key exultation. The closing track “Scarlet Experiment” gradually morphs between two modes of the same scale, a change you only really notice once it’s happened.

The remaining two tracks add some uncharacteristic percussion elements into the mix. “The Doom's Electric Moccasin” contrasts skittery electronic rhythms against a somewhat louche trumpet solo, while “Rowing in Eden” combines a lazy drum pattern with a choir of clarinets.

The album is presented on clear/white splatter vinyl, with another excellent sleeve by designer Carl Glover.