Review: Will Long - Rosy Reflections

There is melody within Rosy Reflections, although it’s only upon its recurrence that it becomes possible to recognise it as such. Both tracks on Will Long’s latest release utilise a thick tonal blanket caught within a dynamic cycle of rise and fall; gooey blurs of synthesiser that surge and retreat with the synchronicity and fluidity of water flow. So subtle are the chord variations – with slight pitch changes buried between and beneath the constant, unchanging drones – that it’s not until the same sequence returns for the fourth of fifth time that the listener latches onto the fact that these pieces are mere fragments fed into eternal loops, rather than an unrepeating stream of sound.

Rosy Reflections is very implicative; it’s not particularly suggestive of a particular place, neither announcing an allegiance to major or minor keys, or positive or negative mood. Listeners will perhaps either dismiss this as timid and indistinctive, or be allured by Long’s mysterious sonic clouds, from which any number of imaginary shapes and significances may be derived. It’s a simple release that makes no particular effort to seize a space all of its own – likening itself to many other artists operating within such abstract and ethereal ambient – but such observations only surface in retrospect, and make no blemish on the hypnotic powers of Rosy Reflections’ gentle to and fro.