Drekka‘s “Frozen Watercourse” is a dreamy meditation for piano, bowed ukulele (played by our old pal Darryl Blood), voice, and other sounds. The vocals are buried deep in the mix, adding subtly to the wordless, layered, pulsing thrum of the piece. The piano plays a gentle chord, alternating beats with the ukulele’s bowed scrapes. A repeated melody line works its way up the keyboard. Slowly everything drops out, and we’re left with a humming drone, evoking wind-swept plains or a slow drowning.
I always have to take wordless submissions at their word (so to speak) that they hew to a particular theme, and so it is with “Frozen Watercourse.” We can only imagine the border connections (although it’s worth noting that this piece was recorded in three border states, if states adjacent to great lakes qualify), but there is a sort of betweenness that comes through here, a feeling of being in two places, two states at once. Perhaps, as we listen to “Frozen Watercourse,” we are water molecules riding the border between solid and liquid, some of us evaporating directly into gas. Whatever the real inspiration for this piece, it is certainly a beautiful piece of music. I’m looking forward to more BoW submissions from Drekka in the future.