Visitation is the debut solo album from visual artist and musician, Eric Angelo Bessel, also known for his work with the acclaimed experimental act, Lore City. Out on April 21st, 2023, Visitation is composed of eight instrumentals which blend together flawlessly to create an atmospheric realm grounded on timeless psychedelia, immersive ambience and gothic patterns.
Sunken Prism is the ideal start to a completely moody full-length, laying the groundwork for the melancholy that Visitation brings to the surface overall and outlining its meditative attributes. Previously revealed tracks, Secret Lake and Kindly Rewind, are also standouts among a group of tracks defined by cohesion.
With a running time near four and five minutes, each song gives off the impression of being a brief segment of a dreamy environment from which one is unwilling to allow to be awakened. All eight of the pieces exhibit Bessel's strong and palpable ability to produce engrossing atmospherics which grip the listener and induce a state of mindfulness rich in cinematic and experiential elements.
Bessel's artist statement is as picturesque as the music, demonstrating that his vision for the album has been fully developed and seamlessly carried out: "Looking up from underneath, there is a watery peace. A settling as the light sifts downward, refracting the sights above, now wavering into pieces of the world as it was. An accordion of a sigh releasing its weight forever. Little snow globes of living. A tin soldier army marches towards us from an unknown distance. Someday their armory will glint in the sun upon the hill, but it is not today. And the expanse is staged. Hands arbitrarily moving about in space. To grasp, to reach for atoms nodding, agreeing to be solidity. To suspend the vibration of being. A nostalgia just out of reach. Wrapped with blankets in the other room, salt lamp glowing, a little less red. To think we could ever look back on these times with such favor. A kindness, bending nearer."
Visitation is the fourth release from the Lore City Music imprint, and a wonderful album which grows with each additional listen.
ZR