Language of the Torch by Kelby Clark

A lone hiker scrambles up a cliff face, sent on this harrowing journey by the thrill of the sublime and only now taking stock of the implications. The meditative, folk-inspired raga of Language of the Torch by Kelby Clark starts at this key moment, the inflection point at which headstrong ecstasy freezes into shuddering fear. What started as a naive rush of confidence, the domination over nature that we feel while holding its great creations in our field of view, dramatically reverses course. The album’s minimal guitar, banjo, and harpsichord double down on hair-raising melodic patterns, simmering just shy of resolution to constantly agitate our anxiety. A bolt of realization strikes; though we once easily captured the mountain in our eyes, the mountain will never see us in return. Winds of haunted, fluttering, suspended riffs blow in, sending us a chill, a grim reminder that our fate was crafted without us in mind.