Release data:

Chris Russell & Eyes Cast Down – Memory Palace
CD-R, Void Music/Kalindi Music, 2014

The origins for “Memory Palace” go back to Christmas 2010, when Greg Moorcroft (aka Eyes Cast Down) approached Chris Russell with the idea of starting a groove-based collaboration. Greg would take are of the rhythmic side of things while Mr Russell would be in charge of all additional textures, soundscapes and synthetic sounds. Both musicians focused on a full-album release after the first idea materialized smoothly in a track for the Relaxed Machiney sampler “reBOOT”.

The first half of the the 5-track/70+ minutes album is centered around electic groove patterns using mostly acoustic drum and percussion samples and the sounding of Greg much-favored wooden frogs alongside tasty synth textures and circular atmospheres, all creating quite an intense and more upfront sonic statement with a certain psychedelic edge.
The third piece “Touchstone Array” (defined as electron crackle) reveals certain contemplativeness, but evolves eventually into a weird and abstract/experimental effort lead by acoustic samples set to a racing tempo with lots of bleeps and sound modifications running alongside.

Fortunately, gentle curling and shifting atmospherics make up the core of the two remaining tracks, with assorted (occasional tribal) rhythmic elements pushed further back in the spacious, transparent sound design on “Afterimages”. The fast but not upfront table-percussion on the final 22-minute piece (which alternates odd-meter electronic rhythms with live tribal drumming) reminds slightly of the Roach-collabs with Mr Fayman.

The result on “Memory Palace” comes down to quite peculiar ambient, expecting the listener to think out of the box quite a bit.

Website: eyescastdown.bandcamp.com

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Chris Russell artist page