C. Lavender - Rupture in the Eternal Realm

A Closer Listen

Eternity is experienced in one fleeting moment. It is not to be anticipated or postponed for the future. Eternity in a way is within us if we feel closely enough beyond ourselves. These are some passing thoughts rather than a deep reflection of the philosophical kind. The profound is often found beyond the self, and in C. Lavender’s third full-length album Rupture in the Eternal Realm, the self is sacrificed to give way to a sonorous plateau of meditative and liberating longform compositions.

“Chöd” becomes a point of inspiration and of departure for the album as C. Lavender’s deeply spiritual and healing soundscapes become a way of “cutting through the ego” and of experiencing the fragility and the ephemerality of eternity. With titles like “Masses of gathered clouds” and “Melt into light” we are enticed in a breath-like atmosphere of levitating waves. Borrowed from lines from the chöd chant itself, the album’s song titles become triggers of a transcendent experience. 

Built with sophisticated  instruments such as the haken continuum and the Buchla 200 and quite textured use of field recordings, gongs and brainwave modulating tones, among other sources, the nine titles in the album present a rather expansive sonic palette such as the sequence between “The Blue Expanse” and “A Bilion Worlds” where the beating of the modulators gives way to a repetitive chanting of synthesisers and drums. Elsewhere we encounter sombre sustained tones as in “The Empty Sky” and the closing track “Emptiness Itself”. The opening track “An Offering Proclaimed In The Dream”, C. Lavender’s own repetitive breathing and voice, acts as a hand reaching out to guide us through the journey and we soon find ourselves surrounded by the lightweight and mesmerising presence of the “Ocean of Ambrosia”, itself a mythical embodiment of eternity and immortality.

Beautifully mastered by Taylor Deupree, and accompanied by a fitting artwork by Robert Beatty,  Rupture in The Eternal Realm has a certain quality to it that positions it alongside many memorable albums of the seventies that experimented with new ways of working with sound but is also a testimony of a forward-thinking genealogy of music makers that blur the boundaries between the spiritual and the technological, such as Laurie Anderson, Éliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros, to whom C.Lavender pays homage. (Maria Papadomanolaki)