Celer’s ‘Being Below’ is temporary music, fluttering by and passing beyond in an instant. Before you know it, the record is done, its transient nature on full display. The record is as much a reflection as it is a musical entry. Will Long ruminates on memory, the false confidence that one can feel, thinking that there’ll always be enough time, but then suddenly realising that things are coming to an end; the sand in the hourglass is running on empty.
Contained within are slim, instrumental songs which feel thin enough to potentially evaporate at any given moment, all coloured in the deep blue of a cloudless Summer sky, their textures a vital part of the stratosphere. ‘The Absence of Atmosphere’ lives in a quiet space, up in the sky above. But Being Below is as much about looking back as it is about looking up and beyond, giving its blue a pale and slightly melancholic tint – it’s there, somewhere, but it never really materialises.
Celer’s personal music is also an aural love letter. Romanticised tones with soft curls and slowly-morphing segues always ensure that the atmosphere shifts as and when it feels the need to; nothing is forced or pre-planned. The only structure within Being Below aims to reflect shifting states, ‘overlooking the past and future as a split pathway with the present endlessly fluctuating between’. Celer calls the process ‘an exercise in loop-less writing’, and it has given the music wider wings. The music gleams with prism-colours, radiating light. Celer is in a reflective mood; the songs seem to think on things, chewing the fat, before leaving things as they are. That isn’t to say that this record isn’t without emotion, because it is, and it’s one of Celer’s strengths. His tones are instantly identifiable, and emotions pour out with every ambient swell.
Being Below is a form of cloud-gazing, appearing, floating, dissolving, the endless, soaring blue sinking into the body. Using digital and analogue means, Will Long is able to create a thin, flexible and glowing aura of sound. It’s the perfect length, because, although short, its beauty lies in its ephemerality.