ERLAND COOPER & LEO ABRAHAMS Seachange

PHASES 7/10

Nuanced bookend to the Orcadian’s Sule Skerry

Described by Cooper as “an upcycling of sounds, themes and layers into a new collaborative work”, Seachange is a companion to his Sule Skerry LP of earlier this year. Made with fêted musical polymath Abrahams, it consists of three subtle, electronically symphonic “Tides” that total 29 minutes. Ignore the title and its almost continuous ambient wash is at once calming and euphoric, with a beauty that’s its own justification. Alternatively, it conjures the endlessly shifting nature of the seascapes of Cooper’s Orkney home, in tandem with notions of the sublime. “Tide III”, which builds slowly to a Budd-like, wide-sky sweep and then falls gently back again, is especially lovely.