Sold Date: March 28, 2014
Start Date: June 12, 2013
Final Price: $50.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 3891
Buyer Feedback: 74

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Baron Elmo proudly presents a stunning work of aural driftage from the duo of experimental music titans Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate, aka ORA: Isle, a UK import issued in 2002 by the Three Poplars label in a single pressing of 300 numbered copies in handmade covers. This is the vinyl reissue of a self-released 1994 cassette. Ora's small but potent body of work – along with that of Chalk's similar-but-not-quite Mirror project with Christoph Heemann – is some of the finest ambient soundscapery to grace the ears since Brian Eno coined the genre in the mid-Seventies. The gorgeous, head-filling music of Ora unfolds like dark, barely-glimpsed flowers, the somber beauty of the music transforming any space it inhabits, as if the record were playing you. The music seems to be mostly created on electric basses and guitars, with extensive use of environmental recordings. An audible breeze, ocean rollers crashing on some mysterious shore, the crackle of something or someone moving around in the brush, a bird's squawk... fascinating sounds, beautifully arranged, arousing the listener's imagination and curiosity. The results are light years removed from the flaccid dribble of New Age; indeed, Mirror's work refuses to fade into the wallpaper or function as mere background noise. The book will perch unread on your lap, the feather duster will fall from your fingers as you listen, enthralled. This is rapturous, contemplative stuff that will floor devotees of ambient and experimental music. The LP is housed in a plain black jacket with a hand-panted strip folded around the left-hand edge, no two the same. This strip is stamped with a Three Poplars seal that has the number of the particular copy inscribed within in silver (#270, in this case). As you might guess, the 300 copies of Isle sold out very quickly – and no CD version has ever been issued. Both the LP and the cover are in flawless shape; Baron Elmo purchased two new copies, and this one has never been played.

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Track listing
Autumn Cove
Leere
In Shore – Purl