Time Of Hayfield

It can be hard to put your finger on exactly why Andrew Chalk’s music is so much more affecting than other ‘ambient’ or drone-based material. There may be some surface similarities, but I suspect the difference resides in the unpretentiousness of Chalk’s productions, and his tendency toward the minimal. His albums don’t make any grand statements, but they are often profoundly moving. Time Of Hayfield is a perfect example: these eight songs slide in and out of view in understated manner, slowly calling in from the distance, making their presence felt quietly yet keenly, then receding from view. They were recorded around the time of Chalk’s Goldfall, and they share with it a mysterious wistfulness, but here everything’s smeared, the sounds smudging into one another.