From the ever productive house of Will Long, also known as Celer, a double album that he recorded in 2018, and for which the inspiration were “the journals, letters, and photographs of James Jenkins, 1942-1943 from Luzon, Philippines”. I assume some words were used in the titles of these pieces, and photographs grace the inside of the cover. Apparently he was (1923-2014) stationed during the war in the Far East and participated in various battles, and lived around the world. I have no idea Will Long get hold of his letters and journals. The music has very little to do with the sound of war, but using tapes, four-track, Uher (a reel-to-reel machine), field recordings, Sony tape recorder, found sounds, Lexicon PCM42 and a pipe reverb, Long creates some very Celer-like music here. Disc two has one, fifty-two minute, piece ‘Uselessness Of The Caused’, whereas on disc one there are six pieces, from one-and-a-half minute to fourteen minutes. These pieces use long loops of quiet, evolving sounds. As (almost) always, Celer erects a firm yet the delicate wall of sound of drone music, from sounds that we no longer recognize, layer upon layered, erasing all previous stages of this process, leaving a hazy, dronal residue. As always, I might be wrong, of course. The music is slow and minimal, lingering majestically. This is especially the case of ‘Uselessness Of The Caused’, which is over fifty minutes long and fills up the entire second disc. On the first disc there are a few short pieces, interludes almost, of radio waves or old 78rpms caught, delivering a sound message from many decades ago; from a quieter world I’d say, but then the year and place may not indicate that much quietness. This is all quite rich music for a quiet day in which everything seems to happen at a ditto quiet pace. This is not something new by Celer, but another fine work all the same.

Tutto scorre lento in Oriente. Seduti sulla veranda, protetti da una leggera zanzariera transparente, si guarda il panorama mentre la pioggia mosonica rende indecifrabile il contorno delle cose. La temperatura corporea che sale oltre il dovuto, quel piccolo insetto che vorace sta succhiando sangue e iniettando malaria, un lontano sapore anni ’40 e il cresendo ambient che ci riporta al presente, al suono prodotto da Will Long in arte Celer. Dal Giappone pensando alle Filippine, a Luzon in particolare, Il dove il fotografo e giornalista James Jenkins fermava il tempo attraverso i suoi fotogrammi o gli articoli scritti mentre la febbre malarica lo investiva. Una splendida pausa cinematica.

Kurz waren die Meditationen von Will Long noch selten, bei „Future Predictions“ beispielsweise dauerten alle vier Kompositionen jeweils um die vierzig Minuten. Auch „Malaria“, die neue Veröffentlichung des in Japan lebenden Amerikaners, nimmt sich viel Raum für langsame Entwicklungen. Aufgeteilt in sieben Teilstücke oder als 80 Minuten andauernde Gesamtheit entfaltet die Musik von Celer gerade wegen dieser Langsamkeit viel Magie.

Inspiriert von Tagebüchern, Briefen und Fotografien des Philippinen James Jenkins, hat Celer mit Field Recordings und elektronischen Klängen ein Abbild einer nachdenklichen Zeit im Leben eines Menschen geschaffen. Man spürt die Wärme der exotischen Gebiete, man hört Regen und Tiere, im Herzen und der Seele macht sich ein ruhiges Gefühl breit. „Writing Letters In the Rain, 06.06“ ist der perfekte Einstieg in diese gemächliche Reise, Muster und Klangfolgen werden von „Eventual Needs“ aufgenommen und wiederholt.

Romantik und Schönheit sind wichtige Zutaten für „Malaria“, nicht einmal der Ausbruch der Krankheit kann die Musik extrem werden lassen („Entire Absence (Fever Temperatures)“). Celer hantiert mit Schichten und Motiven, lässt diese wie Wellen ineinanderfliessen, verschiebt Stimmungen und Temperaturen. Das abschliessende „Uselessness Of the Caused“ ist eine mehr als 50 Minuten wirkend Atmung, eine globale Verbindung zwischen Menschen, Zeit und Natur.

Can Celer surprise me? The answer is, surprisingly perhaps, yes. It is not so much the music itself that is the surprise here, but the briefness of these pieces. I would not say I am an expert on the music of Celer, but I heard a fair share over the years and one thing that is a common thing with Celer is that he usually takes his time to tell a musical story. On this album, we find six pieces, spanning just eighteen minutes of music. It is also available on 12″, and perhaps this is the classic ‘mini LP’ that was a common feature in the 80s. Celer informs that the music was created with digital and analogue instruments and that it is “an exercise in loop-less writing”. As said, the surprise here is not in the music itself, at least superficially, which is the sort of ambient music we know from Celer, but upon closer inspection, one could indeed say that these six pieces have a more song-like structure to them. Slow-moving structures of sustaining sounds but less loop-based, as far as I can judge. These pieces act like water paintings as far as I am concerned, depicting blue skies, blue seas, all blurring together in lots of blue shades. It is a place where light and dark meet. Again, superficially, one could say that this a very light album, but there is, blurring again, always that darker undercurrent that is also a trademark of Celer’s music. It is, all in all, quite a surprising album, and this should be no spoiler: I’d love to have the full-length album approach for this.

Mit der kürzlich erschienenen Doppel-CD hat der in Tokyo lebende Ambient- und Soundkünstler Will Long alias Celer eine soundtrackartige Hommage an den amerikanischen Fotografen James Jenkins geschaffen, der während des zweiten Weltkriegs in Luzon auf den Philippinen lebte, wo er eine Menge an Fotos machte und seine Situation in Journalen und zahlreichen Briefen beschrieb. Long begegnet diesem Thema auf emotionale wie onomatopoetische Art mittiefgehenden Klangflächen und koloritreichen Geräuschen von Wind und Wetter. “Malaria” erscheint Anfang Juni bei Two Acorns, der Download ist bereits erhältlich.

A poco più di un mese dalla pubblicazione del precedente Being Below, il musicista e compositore americano, ma di stanza in Giappone, Will Long pubblica un nuovo disco sotto il moniker Celer.

“Ispirato dai diari, dalle lettere e dalle fotografie di James Jenkins da Luzon, nelle Filippine, tra il 1942-43”, come si legge nella presentazione, Malaria può quasi considerarsi un concept album sulla malattia di cui prende il nome, vista dagli occhi di un osservatore occidentale in un mondo ancora coloniale ed esotico. Ne escono ben due CD di ambient, field recording e delicati interventi strumentali, il disco mette in relazione quel mondo lontano e remoto con l’isolamento della pandemia che stiamo vivendo.

Lush and slowly oscillating like a blanket of clouds, Being Below is the latest from Celer, out on Two Acorns. Drifting and shimmering like the sky above, being below this glory is audibly captured on this EP/CD. Six atmospheric and dreamlike tracks, Being Below is a lovely, relaxing look at synthesis, decay, oscillation, and stillness.

Celer’s latest is an ethereal gem, that floats as majestically and effortlessly as the clouds in the sky which inspired it. Being Below grows and shimmers in such a way that something somewhat minimal can at the same time be very grandiose. The perfect amount of tones and layers combine to form an angelic chorus that is both delicate and robust. A seeming contradiction in terms, Being Below captures all the glory of the sky, its many phases of the day, and the plush feeling of its gossamer denizens with such ease. An all encompassing look at such a vast space without seeming overdone is truly well thought out and well played. Recorded with both digital and analog instruments, this fantastic skyscape was then mastered by German sound artist Stephan Mathieu. The product of this, as mentioned above, is a well done piece of ethereal, ambient music. Although short on run time, Being Below stands up to repeated listens, and each successive spin uncovers more hidden gems in the cottony layers. Composed for the place where Earth and space meet, both sides come into play, and wherever the listener places their imaginary locus shifts how the sound is heard. This subjective aural viewpoint adds extra depth to the piece, and opens up another dimension to the listening experience.

Wonderfully expressive without being overbearing, Being Below from Celer is a fantastic soundscape for the world above. Drifting past, each day into the next, this loop free time loop tells the tale of ten million words in only six tracks. Contemplative, and at the same time, easily accessible, this EP is a gorgeous piece of layered sound.

El músico, escritor y fotógrafo norteamericano Will Long aka Celer reside en Tokio.

Celer se formó en 2005 por Danielle Baquet y Long. Desde 2009 Celer es el proyecto en solitario de Will Long, quien también es curador y director del sello Two Acorns.

Nuestro protagonista posee una larga discografía dedicada a los paisajes sonoros y a la música ambient.

“Being Below” es un mini-álbum de canciones cortas – a diferencia de otros discos – creado con instrumentos digitales y analógicos, grabado en 2020.

Las seis piezas de este LP muestran un estado de ánimo de paz y armonía, con el pasado y el futuro, con quienes están y no lo están.

El tiempo transcurre lentamente mientras se escucha a “Being Below”, la nostalgia se evidencia en las notas melancólicas de los almohadones ambient que se despliegan en este disco.

Will Long con su música lleva al oyente a una escucha profunda que le permite hacerse preguntas y entrar en un estado meditativo.

Celer has been always one of those projects where you have gained a vast amount of space in music under the label of ambient. A clean cut production, an definitely a golden opportunity to find out about the music that is a compromise between lyrical, experimental and illustrative. Not too pompous, not too indistinct, just the right measure of all the ingredients.

With “Being Below” there is definitely an emphasis on the mood shifts and swings. Produced with analogue and digital instruments, it gives you an intimate chance to see for yourself how good a trip of introspective soundscape can be. At it’s best you might just wanna relax.

My past and very positive experience of Celer music is with works that could be described as long-form- long ambient albums which draw you in for a good, indulgent hour. So this EP is something of a surprise- an 18-minute EP comprising six tracks initially described as ‘songs’. Would this represent a massive change in direction? Is Celer about to rock out?

For better or worse, the answer is no. From opening track “Great Circles” on it’s clear that these will still be gentle ambient manoeuvres, full of soft hums and calm washes, but always managing to avoid being cheesy. Celer’s music has been perfect for lockdown since before lockdowns were a thing.

“The Absence Of Atmosphere” accurately describes its own sci-fi, deep space tone, also adopted in the alien “Geodesy”, while pieces like “Two Months are Past, and More” and “After Departures”, while very similar in construction, feel a little more introspective and thoughtful.

Think of this like an artist’s small sketchbook, or a sampler, and enjoy a little snippet of the fairly straightforward but beautiful pleasures that Celer’s longer works offer you in more abundance.