Beyond the Horizon Line

Album Review

VanPortfleet's immediately recognizable efforts under the Lycia rubric would seem to show that a solo album after so many years would simply be a continuation of that distinct sound — whispered, echoed voices, thick waves of electric guitar, shadowy, steady beats. But Beyond the Horizon Line is that rarest of solo efforts, something which actually has its own clear identity while still logically being the work of its creator. The difference can be summed up as one of simplifying — one track aside, "Stellar Buckshot Awaits," VanPortfleet eschews vocals, recognizable riffs as such and beats completely in favor of slow, mysterious textures. The same atmosphere of haunted, wasted gloom that characterizes Lycia remains, though, so this is no new age, vacant prettiness — if anything the closest parallels would be a less extreme version of the blasted drones of Lull and Thomas Köner. "Deep in the Morning Sun" starts the album with almost agonizingly slow echoes and mournful guitar noises floating across a low background electronic moan, at once meditative and disturbing, and very in keeping with Lycia while not sounding like it. With that as the touchstone, Beyond the Horizon Line unfolds in just over an hour of a soundtrack, and while there is sometimes little to differentiate between each of the individual songs, as a whole the album makes for an involving, enveloping listen — the mix may not be as relatively busy compared to Lycia's, and sometimes things are almost calm (thus the lovely "Strange Star Transmissions"), but the intoxicating overall effect is the same. As noted, "Stellar Buckshot Awaits" is the one exception to the rule — it's clear as soon as the spindly sear of VanPortfleet's guitar starts up the main riff — but even it sounds appropriate for this album, with its slow majestic pace and long pauses between his shrouded vocals.