Phillip Wilkerson & Chris Russell - Vague Traces (2014)

Time Being’s Phillip Wilkerson combines creative forces with sound sculptor Chris Russell on Vague Traces, a collaboration steeped in stillness and quietude. Infused with the minimal drones, drifts, micro-sonics and discrete acoustics that are so often prevalent in their solo works, Wilkerson & Russell blend those styles perfectly together on Vague Traces, and the result is 63 minutes of deep drifting tranquility and sublime ambient spaces that seem to come from deep within a dream.

Riding the blurred line that divides dream and reality, Vague Traces intones a very special, delicate space of hyper-awareness, and the artists draw inspiration from their own lucid dream-state experiences. Wilkerson explains, “In concept, the album is about the process of intermittent dreaming and waking which often results in pre-dawn lucid dreams that seem just as real as waking consciousness. Many times, my lucid dreams feel more like actual memories or traces of vague memories from life events.”

This delicate zone between sleep and waking is musical territory also explored by artists like Steve Roach, J. Arif Verner, Jonn Serrie, and Liquid Mind, and the music of and Wilkerson & Russell plugs into that same state of consciousness. Combining their styles into the elegant and subtle dreamscapes found on Vague Traces, Phillip Wilkerson & Chris Russell explore the empire of the evening, where the vague memories of dreams crossover and hover like shadows at the edge of perception.