Gareth Hardwick is a Nottingham, UK based musician who uses electric guitar and effects to create beautiful, lush drone ambient pieces. At times his music can call to mind the atmosphere of Windy & Carl (though more abstract), or a mellower Growing.On "Aurora" (Low Point 008) he presents 3 tracks that work as separate movements of the whole piece. Part 1 sets the tone and introduces the main chord and pitches to be further explored. It opens with a fluttering, almost shimmering, chord cluster that lasts for about 3 minutes. The sonic textures Gareth evokes from his guitar here are instantly mesmerizing. This chord then fades into Part 2, where one tone takes the forefront, accented by harmonics, and a lovely pulsating drone is established. Soon other timbres are subtly introduced, and a recognizable guitar makes its understated appearance, strumming the drone chord as overtones and undertones fill the sonic space around it. Part 2 fades into Part 3 with the droning tone clusters gaining complexity. New chords are slowly introduced, and Part 3 turns out to have a very nice shoegazy sort feel to its droning ambience; reminiscent of some of Kawabata Makoto's solo electric guitar work... Tones are added to an established guitar drone and Gareth constructs the most nostalgic chords to alternate back and forth as loops and pulses. If the sound weren't so psychedelic and dreamy things would almost feel busy towards the end... But suddenly, rather abruptly, the volume just drops out and it's over, leaving you wishing it could have gone on forever...
This 16+ minute piece is an excellent example of Gareth's talent for creating beautiful guitar drones, and easily stands with works by other drone and ambient artists like Stars of the Lid, Growing, and Chris Herbert. "Aurora" is released by Low Point on a 3" CD-r that comes in a white mini-DVD case, limited to 75 copies. The hazy photo that makes up the wraparound album cover does a good job at evoking the music's aura.
