by David Wilikofsky
There’s something antithetical about the idea ambient country. Storytelling is central to the mission of country music, whether it’s listening to the sad sack at the end of the bar or a chilling tale of murder. Ambient music works in the realm of abstraction, building textures and atmosphere at the periphery of some liminal space. Attempting to mix the two seems like a fool’s errand. I’ve found some previous excursions into the genre quite captivating, but more often than not the results sound like ambient music with steel guitar. Jordan Reyes’ latest album feels like the most convincing argument that ambient country can be more than the sum of its parts.
“Abstract country” might be a better way to describe what Reyes is doing here; he’s taken iconic country sounds but distorted and recontextualized them. Opener “The Pre Dawn Light” is built on a wordless vocal chant, but there’s a whisper of synth in the background that brings to mind an Ennio Morricone soundtrack; the end result is a Gregorian chant by way of the O.K. Corral. “High Noon” features steel guitar, but rather than provide twang it serves as a fragile, quaking foundation for a twinkling guitar melody. While the way Reyes uses these sounds isn’t clearly country, the images it evokes are: cowboys, wide open spaces, the frontier. His deployment of these signature sounds helps enliven those pictures.
More than just playing with sonic tropes, Reyes tries to tell a story with Sand Like Stardust. Structured as a single day from dawn to dusk, each track on the album helps build its narrative. Following the dawn, the languid notes of “Drifter” conjure images of a vast, barren landscape. At the center of the album, “An Unkindness” features jarring power electronics; its intensity come as a shock after its relatively tranquil predecessors and seemingly signifies some sort of violent event. It’s followed by “A Hard Ride”, which sounds like an escape on horseback. The music becomes more tranquil as night encroaches, culminating in the spoken word lullaby of “Centaurus”. Perhaps more than anything else, storytelling ties the music back to the spirit of country music.
So what is Sand Like Stardust? It’s a longform story, filled with the sounds of steel guitars and spaghetti westerns. It’s shimmering, evocative sonic portraits of the West. Perhaps more than anything else, it’s an exercise in world building. Reyes has made an album that is experimental in the best sense of the word, transcending genre boundaries to create something at once reminiscent of its inspirations and wholly unique. If you’re looking for an escape, it’s a world well worth getting lost in.