Bleeding Light by Aarktica

After nearly two years of silence, Aarktica (aka Jon DeRosa) returns with a fourth full-length release, the most haunting and ambitious to date. Supported by an ensemble of horns, strings and percussion, Bleeding Light is it’s own distinct hybrid of dark, dissonant free jazz, electro-acoustic drone pop, and shoegaze glimmer, all largely centered around North Indian raga structures.

At its core, Bleeding Light is an album about New York City in the sense that it captures the very massive and intricate feelings of urban sadness and isolation. It simmers with tension, a harrowing feeling of the loss of self and a slow descent into madness, most apparent in the hallucinatory dirge "Depression Modern". Aarktica obsesses over the idea of synthetic light as a necessary foil to the city's darkness, exalting Times Square's light architect in "OJ Gude".

DeRosa's guitar work has grown more ominous and minimal over the years, as his style has evolved from lush reverb washes to reductionist subharmonic loops and fractured melodies. He has the rare quality of working in different genres with different performers, always resulting in a style that is unmistakably his own. Here he collaborates with longtime friend Aaron Spectre, as well as ex-Anthony Braxton Ensemble members Seth Misterka, Nate Wooley, and Mike Pride.

As with all of Aarktica's works, this is ideal for headphone listening, as there is seemingly no bottom to this well of layers and textures. Bleeding Light is an enhanced CD and features a video for the song "A Wash A Sea Goodbye It's Me" directed by Jake Hensberry.

Aarktica is the ambient/atmospheric project of Jon DeRosa, who has been releasing a diverse catalog of music (with a revolving lineup of collaborators) under this guise since 1998.

Aarktica’s audio explorations span decades and include a wide-range of styles, straddling shoegaze and ambient, electronic and drone, and most recently immersed in deep, meditative sounds for cosmic journeys.