Bleep

Instrument innovator and DFA affiliate Gavin Russom reveals his fascinating synth drone project Hail Of Arrows on Walls’ Ecstatic Recordings. Comprised of four comprehensive pieces, the work imagines the utopian scenario of birds of prey reclaiming Manhattan Island. Living in uptown Manhattan, Russom was inspired by Peregrine Falcons re-settling in Fort Washington Park and the 1981 crime horror film Wolfen in which Indians shapeshift to wolves in order to defend their home, Battery Park. The song titles disclose the project’s narrative, evoking the momentous soundtrack for the plot: there’s an inherent progression in this epos, with moods changing and movements becoming vividly apparent. From the loaded, seething oscillations as the birds reclaim the city to the scrabbling synth patterns running against each other as they awake in a changed world and the menacing gestures as they protect their land before the noisy drone of the unknown surpasses everything.