SAY Award 2023's nominees explained: Andrew Wasylyk – Hearing The Water Before Seeing The Falls
As 2023's Scottish Album Of The Year Award draws near, we're penning some handy primers on each shortlisted album to help you wade through this avalanche of musical goodness. Andrew Wasylyk’s ambient jazz odyssey Hearing The Water Before Seeing The Falls is up next
Act: Andrew Wasylyk
Album: Hearing The Water Before Seeing The Falls
How it sounds: At times like you’re drifting in and out of consciousness at a Yin yoga class and others like you’re starring in your own Oscar-nominated drama. In the album’s epic opening track ‘Dreamt In The Current Of Leafless Winer’ (which comes in at just over 16 minutes), tuneful drones continuously underpin a series of fleeting sounds, from keys and windchimes to breathy fluttering saxophone. More cinematic strings and brass are introduced on the album’s title track, but a steady looped piano hook keeps us in a meditative state a little while longer before we are awakened by more vibrant melodies in ‘Years Beneath a Yarrow Moon’ and ‘A Confluence’. In the former, Beethoven-esque arpeggios and a Chopin-like melancholia showcase Wasylyk’s composition skills and talent for building atmosphere.
Originating from a commissioned response to Thomas Joshua Cooper’s The World’s Edge exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and taking inspiration from Derek Jarman’s diary Modern Nature, there’s a vastness about this album; like we are soaring across epic landscapes rather than honing in on individual elements. Not only is Wasylyk’s latest work beautifully composed but entirely transportative in nature.
Top track: ‘Years Beneath A Yarrow Moon’ is a timeless piece combining classical melodies and romantic harmonies with modern percussion.
Do you come here often? You could say so. Wasylyk has been on The SAY Award longlist and shortlist twice.
Why Andrew Wasylyk should win: Wasylyk’s ability to evoke complex emotion and build epic atmospheres in Hearing The Water Before Seeing The Falls represents something totally unique on this year's shortlist.
The SAY Award winner will be announced on Thursday 26 October.
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