Aarktica - Morning One (2023 Remaster) (2023) Hi Res

"Jon DeRosa had, in his indomitable fashion, set the stage for his contemporaries. 'Morning One' brimmed with emotion and a touch of the blues, yet shone like a beacon. If one’s heart didn’t flutter at its minimal grace, one had to wonder if it ever fluttered at all. Aarktica deftly heightened the intricacy, drawing one into a web of anticipation, all the while sidestepping the pitfall of mere noise or pompous display. Each element from the piercing chime of a glockenspiel, to a voice-over that seemed to have walked straight out of a tragic romance, to the sedate drift of a glacial guitar held a gravitas and poignant depth." -Alice Teeple

On the original 2001 release, Aarktica (aka Jon DeRosa) explored ethereal shoegaze balladry and surreal ambient guitar excursions. For this expanded edition, three unreleased tracks from that era shine a light on additional facets of their burgeoning sound with cloudbursts of "beautiful noise" and minimal guitar drones.

MORNING ONE released shortly after their debut NO SOLACE IN SLEEP (2000) illuminates a transition from pure guitar ambient to the atmospheric drone pop hybrid sound that became their trademark.

"In many ways MORNING ONE is the 'missing link' in the catalog," says DeRosa. “It’s an important release for me, a transitional release, from a time when I was really feeling out what I wanted Aarktica to become. I was influenced by bands like Flying Saucer Attack, Slowdive and Mogwai, but I was also a composition student studying Indian classical music with La Monte Young and becoming more interested in how to create ambient textures in a compositional way. I was listening to composers like Ingram Marshall and was so in awe of his ability to bridge the ambient/electronic world into that of modern classical. And in much the same way, I was listening to bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor! who were doing very much the same but in reverse."

These influences are noticeable on the unreleased bonus track "Drone on a Theme By Thomas Tallis," a response to Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis." This fuzzy and noisy interpretation of the original Tallis melody develops through layered, overdriven electric guitars creating tone clouds and layered drones with hints of the harmonic structure peeking through.

In "(Less Than or Equal To) 23," DeRosa incorporates sampled voice over atmospheric piano, glockenspiel and minimal guitar; while on the title track "Morning One" he performs a composed "duo for strings" on sustained electric guitars, sounding more like organs, to surreal floating effect. The jewel in the crown is the leadoff track "These Days Fail To Bring Me Near," one of Aarktica's most sublime songwriting moments; it's a soaring psych-shoegaze ballad and the first track in their catalog to feature vocals. Included is a 2002 remix by Aaron Spectre (aka electronic artist Drumcorps), a seductively downtempo version with darkly danceable beats and hammered dulcimer.

"When I think back, I remember Morning One introduced Aarktica to John Peel," muses DeRosa. “It originally came out on a UK label. It reached him, and I remember the delight in tuning into the BBC via the internet one afternoon (a very novel thing at the time) and hearing his praise for 'These Days Fail...' before playing it."