Aside from the sheer experimentalism of his chosen direction, Duncan Park’s next best trait is his driving consistency when it comes to releases. Another six months, another album. This time around he’s joined forces with Australian label Ramble Records for the release of his extensively unusual four-track album, In the Floodplain of Dreams.
There’s a lot to be said of consistency. There’s also a lot to be said of an artist who doesn’t shy away from the more obscure side of the sonic spectrum – and his latest offering certainly does not. Hinged thematically on a series of traumatic events which rocked Durban over the last year – from the riots and looting in July 2021, to the floods of May 2022 – the album takes a darker, coarser, grating tangent.
Exhibit A is opener “In the Mountains of Sour Grass” whose 12 minute extent begins with an aggressive, screeching electric guitar intro which gradually fades into its soothing acoustic counterpart. It was penned in the Drakensberg, where Park went to escape some of the madness of the world and his gradual recalibration is sonically explored as the fibrillating intensity diverts to organic delicacy.
“Howling at the Moon” boasts unpredictable vocals – inspired by the riots – underpinned by a simple acoustic guitar line. “Ballad of Soft Green Moss” opts for over nine minutes of Guy Buttery-esque acoustic guitar perambulations – before “In the Floodplain of Dreams” closes things off wafting synths which transgress full circle in the outro to echo the screeching guitar which opened the album.
In the Floodplain of Dreams is an album weighed in meaning and sonic experimentalism. And while it might not be something to kick your heels up to, it certainly will make you think.
Feature pic supplied by artist
