All The Mirrors In The House (Early Recordings 1979 - 1986)

Between the ages of 10 and 17, Warren Defever of Detroit was making home recordings that anticipated wide swaths of ambient music by an entire generation. He went on to become one of the most brilliant and inventive musicians around, but it's still astonishing how good this collection of juvenalia is. These melancholy miniatures are exceptionally beautiful and mysterious, to the point where they would sound perfectly natural coming from a professional composer today. Wow! RIYL Stars of the Lid, Celer, Sarah Davachi, Grouper, Benoît Pioulard, 4AD. Favorites: 6, 10, 11, 14, 15. Tracks bleed into one another. No words, no FCCs.

1. (2:03)—Piano drones, swirls.
2. (2:56)—Streaks of rising tones, shooting star-like.
3. (2:36)—Multitracked slow acoustic guitar.
4. (1:27)—Low, murky drone.
5. (2:24)—Proto-shoegaze feel, prelude to a big dreamy rock song.
6. *(4:44)—Deep, mysterious. Slow soul ballad guitar stretched away from recognizability.
7. (0:37)—Tape in a windstorm.
8. (2:01)—More proto-shoegaze sounds. Glimmering, psychedelic.
9. (2:21)—Dark, doom metal intro music.
10. *(4:02)—Limpid, serene ambient music. Strong Stars of the Lid feel.
11. (2:00)—Echoing piano, bright and gentle.
12. *(3:18)—More Stars of the Lid ambient atmospheres, unwinding tape sounds.
13. (0:34)—Fourth world-esque miniature.
14. *(3:44)—Water sounds, dissonant wisps, industrial bleeps.
15. *(2:07)—Eerie, slightly squeaky high drone. Music for an abandoned amusement park at night.