As on Equivalents, with Clara Loscil's Scott Morgan takes a break from the environmentally inspired works he's done frequently and so well (and returned to with 2020's EP and book project Faults, Coasts, Lines). After translating the photography of Alfred Stieglitz into Equivalents' gorgeously dappled reflections on creativity, this time Morgan's artistic process is more abstracted and involved. A set of pieces celebrating the properties of light, Clara began as a short composition recorded by a string orchestra, pressed on vinyl, distressed, and then sampled and reconfigured by Morgan. While the album's source material is somewhat different than usual, the results are still unmistakably Loscil. Even when he evokes light, he doesn't make predictable choices. On "Vespera" -- that's Latin for "evening star" -- a luminous melody hovers almost subliminally in the background instead of front and center where another, less creative composer might put it. Nor is Clara typically bright or sunny sounding, but on pieces like the delicately rippling and refracting "Lumina" and the softly undulating "Lux," Morgan cleverly expresses light as particles, waves, and a thing of poetic beauty. While the potential for electronically morphing sounds is nearly infinite, Clara's palette is a tightly edited blend of the drones familiar to Loscil fans and hints of the work's orchestral roots; the album's title track combines both of these, as well as choir-like voicings, into something truly majestic. Elsewhere, "Orta"'s whispering and hissing textures and serene pulses make for one of the work's most surprisingly pretty moments, while "Sol"'s woozy, bending tones evoke a magnificent corona of heat. Despite, or perhaps because of its restraint, Clara expresses a wide array of moods. Morgan creates a gorgeous contrast between "Stella"'s sub bass and a tremulous high end that twinkles like starlight, and he later conjures an awe-inspiring radiance with "Aura." On solemn, dignified pieces such as "Lucida," which has the slow sweep of a lighthouse's beacon, Morgan captures not just the light but the darkness surrounding it, giving the album a depth and moodiness that harks back to Sea Island and Monument Builders. A beautifully nuanced work, Clara is both revealing and mysterious -- and Loscil fans wouldn't expect anything less. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Lux
2		Lumina
3		Lucida
4		Stella
5		Vespera
6		Sol
7		Aura
8		Flamma
9		Orta
10		Clara

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