Ritual Incantation by Aidan Lochrin

This page is for archival purposes - for the original release on Submarine Broadcasting Company go to:

https://submarinebroadcastingco.bandcamp.com/album/ritual-incantation

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‘Ritual Incantation’ was written over the dark winter months of early 2024, where I’d found myself untethered - floating somewhat aimlessly through the days, often spending them awash in ennui.

The project started as just a means to experiment, to refine my practice and attempt to bridge the gap between the sounds of some of my previous projects - like the noisier, harsher sounds of ‘The Death of Arcadia’, or the soft synths of its sister work ‘Chalkydri Ashes’ - while still attempting to channel a lot of field recording driven works that I am interested in making. However, I think that it came out rather as a thing unto its own, neither noisy nor soft - but something a little more fluid.

As I was writing it, it became somewhat of a meditative process - it was an attempt at starting everything over, as I was seemingly doing elsewhere in my life. A reminder to myself that all things are temporary. Taking that into account, through framing the themes that I wanted to explore through the lens of the ephemeral, there was an endeavour to find grounding points when adrift in this sea of listlessness. Hence the title, Ritual Incantation. A mantra, a spell, a mindful process - just an act of intent. The work is then based on the idea of a fading memory; framed by the ebb of the sea.

The shore is, to me, a transitory place - one that is no longer land but not quite yet sea. Much of the work is either built upon field recordings taken & collected across Scotland, or is reflected as such in the titling as a means of solidifying what the sound is trying to convey. Ritual Incantation is probably the work that I’ve experimented the most with samples - of old classical music recordings, of failing analogue machines, of records that skip because they’ve been played too much. All used things - but all used things that were loved well.

Experimental Musician and Sound Artist based in Glasgow, Scotland

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