Visitation is the debut solo album from visual artist and musician, Eric Angelo Bessel. One half of experimental, gothic, post rock duo Lore City based in Portland, Oregon.
In terms of pace and feeling Visitation is a stunning collaboration of serenity and calm laced with highly emotive inflections of darkness and foreboding. The eight instrumental tales take you on a journey into places unknown. Each track welcomes you to a different scenario where at first you are greeted by a safe feeling of wonderment and intrigue, however things are not always as they seem and some of these places hold dark secrets and strange mysteries, with a few tracks shifting in feel to murkier depths. All the while the songs themselves rarely stray from a floaty, dreamy existence carrying you along in an elevated trance like state. Visitation hits on both an aural and visual level. I get an otherworldly feel from this and the accompanying artwork pushes the imagination even further. It could be taken as an interplanetary kind of sci fi thing but I see it as more of a natural science fiction idea from places that we know little about on our own planet, like the ocean or an unexplored forest or wilderness.
Eric incorporates some weird and wonderful instruments (e.g - the Mellotron to name one), techniques and tools like the EBow to great effect creating a concoction of "psychedelic, gothic and ambient motifs". Eric describes the first single from Visitation, "Secret Lake" (released Feb 22nd) as " a marshy voyage which reveals a lo-fi chamber orchestra and choir before slinking beneath the lily pads". Each track slowly builds up and fades out at the end, with the first half of the album conveying a bright and hopeful approach whilst a more gothic hue drifts in to coat the final two songs with a sense of foreboding.
As an album Visitation demands attention. It is not one to happily pop on whist doing the chores or as something to have on in the background, you will miss the detail, the eccentricities and the story telling and you certainly wont be doing it justice. Unlike Lore City's last two track EP Under Way which would enhance the most mundane of tasks, Visitation needs to be listened to when you have absolutely nothing else to do, so you can just kick back and get yourself into a zen state and prepare for an epic journey.
Visitation was written, arranged, recorded and produced by Eric Angelo Bessel who is also responsible for the photography, design and layout of the album and artwork. It was mixed by Jason Powers and mastered by Carl Saff. It will be available as a digital release and vinyl on April 21st 2023 via Lore City's bandcamp page with the first single "Secret Lake" available from February 22nd 2023.
