Loscil

Early last year, as part the ongoing Book Report Series, Loscil recorded City Hospital, a selection of incidental instrumental music created for Malcolm Lowry's haunted, posthumous 1968 novella, Lunar Caustic. Expanding the run from 100 to 350 copies, handmade record label Wist Rec. has reissued City Hospital on three-inch CD-R, complete with stunning, jackdaw-style packaging, including reproduced maps, photographs and postcards from Lowry's boozy, gloomy version of the '30s. Presented, this time around, as a single track, the nearly 19-minute, titular piece manages to capture Lowry's manic, panic Bellevue breakdown as low-end synth rumblings unwearyingly coalesce into impressions of warbling rhythms and decaying melodies that ebb and flow. Inducing meditative pacing, sweeping movements and unfettered piano lines, Loscil gives the music a field-recording atmosphere, allowing City Hospital to act as both a suitable companion to Lunar Caustic and a fascinating, engrossing stand-alone piece of art.