Aurore Rien

Telesthesia (2003)

Jordan Rogowski

Real music transports the listener; it puts them in a place and frame of mind that allows for everything to be forgotten; the music's all that matters. It's special when you're able to find an album, and for that one album, you're hanging on every change in vocal inflection, every chord progression, every pitter-patter of the drums working throughout.

Needless to say, those albums don't come around all that often.

Telesthesia, however, Telesthesia is one of those albums. Released in 2003 by Aurore Rien, only their second recorded output, this album is a brilliant piece of post-rock that is no doubt standing the test of time. They may not be as revered as Sigur Rós, or prolific as Explosions In the Sky, but in their own little niche, they fill the largest of shoes. It's always hard to be objective about an album that you really love, but biases or not, this truly could be one of your favorite records too.

"Hindsight 20/20" playfully meanders through layer after layer of lush, beautiful, and melodic guitar tones that seemingly fade into the background and present themselves at the forefront at the very same time. Guitarists Chris Schafer and Grady Owens share a delicate interplay, but work terrifically together. Owens provides the deeper tones, while Schafer's richer harmonies work well off of that basis, as the songs cascade through their durations. About halfway through this track is when both guitarists let loose, really turning up the amps and the pace. The absence of a bassist doesn't seem to hinder the trio even in the slightest. "Hearts Murmur Under Halogen Lights" plays with some solid rhythms, and uses a lot of delay and echo in the guitar work, which really hits its stride in this song, allowing for some truly gorgeous instrumentation. This is music that makes you visualize, makes you put more of a picture in your head than lyrics ever could. That's not to say this album is completely lacking vocals, as Schafer does contribute his whimsical voice at two or three points on the album, albeit not for very long at all. When the vocals are present, it's only to accent or heighten a point where mood and tension are peaking, as with the standout track, "Breakaway, Sydney."

To say the song is incredible may not do it proper justice. It's so impactful, so poignant that you cannot help gravitating towards it. The song starts out with a sound bite of an impassioned speech about coal mining communities, and how it pertains to congress and those people who are impacted by the brutalities that take place there. About halfway through the speech, the instrumentation delicately sweeps the speech slowly out, with Schafer painfully singing "you will break away…" The music then subdues, dropping in volume, until the most important part of the speech comes back in:

Who knows who's mine will be, tomorrow or tonight. Those are the intangibles. If we must grind up human flesh and bone, in the industrial machine we call modern America, then before God I assert; that those who consume the coal and you and I who benefit from that service, because we live in comfort, we owe protection to those men first. And we owe protection to their families if they die. I say it! I voice it! I proclaim it! And I care not, who in heaven or hell opposes it, that's what I believe about that!

Bands use soundbites from movies, from speeches, from other songs all the time, but the atmosphere this song creates before being carried out by some lulling ambience cannot be argued. "Sunsets, I Have Seen Too Many Without You," finishes off the album, beginning with the gentle resonance of waves splashing on the shore, and the sounds of young children playing. It's the most laid-back, image-evoking song on the album, despite it being the shortest. But that vision of the sea never leaves your head, and the sounds of those swells slapping the shore, they never leave your ear.

As good as this album is, no amount of SAT adjectives or flowery language can do justice to the impact it can have. The beauty, grandeur, and power that these four songs possess is something gorgeous to behold. Something you'll still hear next time you stand on the shore of your favorite beach, and something you see every time a wave, no matter the size, crashes onto the shore.