Hello and welcome back everyone to this album spotlight to Alter by Carson. I hope you enjoyed last week’s kind of comeback story. In case you missed it feel free to check it out here. This week I’m gonna bring back something I did before on this blog. I’ve talked about other people’s music before, for example Carson’s debut album ‘Point Of View’ and the phenomenal ‘To Lose Ground’ EP by Black Paper. This time Carson is back again with another album containing several styles of music in his very own Carson flavour. It’s called ‘Alter’ and with its stellar production and its creative yet perfectly fitting variety it exceeds expectations by a lot.
Before I start giving my final thoughts right from start though, let me once again go through each track individually. Get your headphones ready and start to experience
‘Alter’.
Alter by Carson – The listening experience
The album starts with an intro that lets you know whats up right from the beginning. Ethereal pads make you dive into another world and when the sound gets brighter it’s like breaking through clouds and seeing the unfiltered, beautiful sunshine. It’s a great way to start off the album and get you into the mood for an epic ride.
Speaking of ways, track 2 called ‘The Way‘ starts in similar fashion but a lot darker. You get to hear to hear a dark pad that’s soon accompanied by brighter sounds and slowly pounding strings that create a lush and hopeful atmosphere. You can hear the only prominent percussion towards the end when the song reaches it’s climax. This one is a track that sends me on a journey in my mind, one without a real destination.
Track 3 is called ‚1am‘. For the first time you can hear a sample and some drums. It’s definitely a Lo-Fi vibe but Carson somehow magically manages to blend in the ambient and soundtracky style of the whole album. One of the things I admire about this project.
‚Between Time‘ is the first track of Alter that fully embraces that Soundtrack feel and damn it feels good. I totally didn’t expect the drum hits to set in along with the strings turning up like this. Possibly my favourite of this album.
When listening to ‚Mirrored Skies‘, the fifth track of Alter, in the beginning you might think that this track is a Lo-Fi beat kind of song but it isn’t. Yet again Carson blends in the styles of the album with each other like he’s done it a thousand times before. This is one of the aspect about Alter that make this album stand out, elevating it to a higher level.
Half 2 – dark vibes and an astonishing finale
‚Revival‘ is another one of the Soundtrack kind of songs on the album. It feels like it belongs into a video game with a world so beautiful and organic. I think especially at this point you can tell that Carson has been doing music for game and movie projects for a while now as he understands how to capture a certain way of imagination, if that makes sense.
With ‚Be Here‘, track 7, we’re deep into the second half of the album. It’s an older upload with ethereal pads in the beginning. Further into the track subtle vocal pads set in that you might overlook the first couple of times you listen to this track.
Track 8 is the first true dark song of Alter. A melancholic piano melody and haunting strings make up for a dark intro. With the little FX throughout and the drums I think this is what it sounds like having a really dark and emotional day. Brilliantly evoking emotions here.
‚Shadowfall‘ carries on with that dark energy but this time it’s a mysterious feel you get when listening to the track. It builds up tension with distinct orchestral sounds and a sudden end. Definitely leaves you imagining what this could be the soundtrack of.
Carson ends his album with a song called ‚Alter‘ which rounds off the listening experience perfectly. Once again he blends in ambient vibes with epic soundtrack material that only keeps getting more epic until it rises to a climax that makes you wanna listen to another album just like this.
Final words to Alter by Carson
After about half an hour the ‚Alter‘ experience is over. It’s almost sad that this album by Carson isn’t longer. In my opinion it’s one of those albums you could take along with you on a long walk through nature. Every tracks makes you pause for a moment and breathe slowly as all kinds of thoughts crawl around in your head.
You can notice a big difference between Carsons earlier projects and Alter. While ‚Point Of View‘ had that unique Indie kind of feel mixed with instrumentals, Alter shows what Carson has been refining in recent times. Incredibly well produced soundtrack and ambient music. But the fact that he managest to mix in his signature Lo-Fi feel from time to time shows that he hasn’t forgotten what his origins are if you know what I mean. Instead of making a hard cut he evolved and shows it solely with his music. That’s a beautiful thing in my eyes.
According to Carson himself he improved in several areas such as mixing and finding a way to add more depth to his tracks. He also says that he improved on adding a certain type of feel and emotion to the songs.
I think this tracks with what the album has to offer and we can see once more why it pays off to stick to your craft and let the time be your biggest mentor as these are things you mostly learn by experience.
With these ending words I hope you enjoyed this spotlight blog episode. Feel free to check out my last entry about my very own project, Heart Trip Vol.2. Until then!
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