Sequences - A​́​gua Viva (2024)

"You don’t understand music: you hear it. So hear me with your whole body."
— Clarice Lispector, Água Viva

Sequences, the long-running project of Antwerp's Niels Geybels, has graced Elevator Bath with his most substantial release since his masterful 2020 LP, "Woven Empty" (and following his excellent "The Seismograph" disc from last year).

Borrowing the title and inspiration from the Brazilian writer, Clarice Lispector's experimental novel from 1973, Geybels' "Água Viva" is as idiosyncratic and poetic as its namesake. The album's eight chapters (each a highly evocative short story unto itself) were titled after text found in Lispector's book, and each exists as an impression of the ideas found within said text.

The basis for "Água Viva" was a 20-minute field recording captured by Geybels during his extensive travels. The album's first four pieces all feature this initial work in varying degrees of prominence. The second half of the album meanwhile deconstructs the atmospheres of the first half, using the essence of these pieces as the point of departure for four new studies in mysterious ambiance.

Grounded by the field recordings at the album's core, yet dreamlike and exploratory in nature, as evidenced by the other audio components (magnetophone, zither, modular synthesizer, and guitar), this is an album of interpretations and ruminations; a potent reminder of the power of living water.

Niels Geybels has released several albums under the Sequences name and several more as False Moniker. He runs the very fine Audio. Visuals. Atmosphere. label from his home in Belgium.

"An excellent record!"
— Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly