Clay Ancient is the clandestine project of Michael McCarville. Though shrouded in the mysteries afforded by peculiar soundscapes, sacred hums and immense drones, Clay Ancient endeavours to be perceived as an entity.
As such, the solo-instrumental project has succumbed to its own complex evolution whilst yet gripping the embrace of simplicity. “Bask in the Glory of the Ancient Sun” is one such example of the necessity of simplicity and its awe-inspiring execution for tremendous effect.
Spanning over sixteen minutes, “Bask in the Glory of the Ancient Sun” is a call to overturn the rocks and rip trees straight from their roots like weeds. Distorted guitar drones command the skies over a natural and beautifully awkward melody. Fuzzed-out guitars travel through the filter of massive reverberation and subtle delays.
Unhinged distortion and feedback touts a magnetic quality that disturbs my speakers at high volume, faithfully appeasing one’s affinity for dramatics as riffs cascade over the burden of heavy noise. A balance between high, pinching notes and low, excessive dissonance emerges. The artist is guided by their intuition and seems toplay what feels right as opposed to using straight-forward compositional techniques. Though this method is implemented as a comfort to the artist themselves, it gives the interpreter perspective into Clay Ancient’s talent for composing spontaneously and without hesitation.
It is important to note that this is a field recording—as it was captured outside of a studio setting, the reverberation applied to the entire piece is entirely unique. Clay Ancient captures this track using a cellphone. You cannot fucking tell. Nothing is lost in spontaneity as limitation serves as an advantage to artistry. Clay Ancient is a testament to such sentiments.
Genres: Drone, Ambient, Experimental, Guitar
Associated Acts: Hungry for Vladimir