- Love From Dust is Donnacha Costello's first album in five years. It comes after a break from making music, during which time he returned to education. He wound up at the front of a 13-year wait for a very rare synthesiser: the EMS Synthi. An attempt to crowd-fund the purchase of the synth didn't work out, but it gave him the cash for a stellar second choice. The Buchla Music Easel synthesiser has recently garnered attention as the heart of Charles Cohen's music, and it's the only instrument used on Love From Dust.
Repetition is the motivating force here, with tracks generally sticking to the format of a single loop changing gradually over time. There are instances where this works quite well, such as the slow growing heft of "Ten Ton" and the blissful higher melody of "Farewell." The latter's bottom end, however, is indicative of an issue with Costello's method; a simple, metronomic bassline plods away underneath the upper-frequency gymnastics, dragging the rest of the track back. On "Klar," the loop never fully develops, instead replaying itself seemingly without purpose. It's the shortest track on the album, but feels longer than its actual four minutes.
Running to 11 minutes, "Everything Is Going To Be" is the album's climax. Its lead melody is again very simple, sounding like a synthesised snippet of José González's version of "Heartbeats." Its direction is spelled out from the beginning and its gradual distortion comes as no great surprise. Even at its most corrupted, the central melody never disappears, and the track's progress never feels threatened. Everything on Love From Dust was recorded in a single take without overdubs, and on "Everything Is Going To Be" you can hear the limits of this strategy over time.
Costello's straight-forward melodic approach can be too basic to generate much engagement. It feels like the work of a musician still getting to grips with a new instrument, using it to create pretty experiments. For an ambient album, Love From Dust could offer more remarkable textures. It's tied to its melodies, and most everything else takes a backseat while they loop around, unbroken. As a look into what the Buchla is capable of, Love From Dust is a decent first step, but little more than that.
Tracklist01. Niigata Moment
02. Ten Ton
03. Asteroid
04. Klar
05. Farewell
06. Everything Is Going To Be
07. Unconditional