A century prior to the passenger pigeon’s human-induced extinction in 1914, it was perhaps the most populous bird on the planet. It’s estimated that a few billion patrolled the skies of the Eastern United States at the turn of the 19th century. They’d roam in ominous clusters that resembled sentient stormclouds, masses of darkness that oozed across the sky, casting massive shadows and laying waste to crops below. A pigeon flyover was an apocalyptic event, aesthetically akin to the biblical Plagues of Egypt.
Landscapes is an illustration of such a foreboding flock. Vaporous organ drones seem to gravitationally hold a mass of fluttery synths, chirps, and other facets of avian ambience together as one living, breathing being. hinata, formerly known as asukrai, places listeners in the dead center of this swarm, gliding along with the group in search of food. Though comprised of futurist, silicone sounds, this EP feels more connected to the world of animals than that of our own — it’s a fanfare for the ant hoisting a leaf 20 times its body weight, the worker bee hopping from flower to flower, and especially the nomadic bird.
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