February 19, 1947, Polar Hidden Sun, United States, Boul God, handmade CD-R (2024)
If you’re keen to claim a physical copy of this recording in your collection, you apparently have to fork out US$777 for a handmade copy from Philadelphia-based label Boul God if you buy it on the label’s Bandcamp page. Apart from the eyebrow and hair-raising expense involved, this minimalist ambient drone journey through forbidding Arctic soundscapes is compelling enough in itself right from the discombobulating start of long richly buzzing drones cut and shaped by an odd throat-catching drone melody loop in opening track “We Heard Him Say Prayers to the Ice”. The entire premise of “Polar Hidden Sun” is based on US naval officer Richard E Byrd’s supposed discovery of the entrance to the Hollow Earth at the North Pole on 19 February 1947. My understanding is that Byrd was actually in Antarctica from late 1946 to early 1947 leading Operation Highjump to establish an Antarctic research base (and claim a sizeable chunk of Antarctica) for the United States, but why let this fact get in the way of an intriguing conspiracy theory?
For such a minimalist ambient work based on repetition, and featuring such strange mysterious sounds, “Polar Hidden Sun” is a fascinating sprawling soundscape universe of dark art, full of mystery and danger as we follow the album’s protagonist into the chthonic underworld. If the first track was hypnotic and enticing, the second track “Out of the Darkness, a Slow Strobe of Purple” is ominous, even threatening as extended tones are pushed beyond their usual ranges of expression and mood into deeply unsettling sonic shadow territories. Subsequent tracks – the album features four tracks altogether detailing Byrd’s adventures beneath the North Pole – are even more filled with dread and murky subterranean mystery. Final track “We Carried Him to the Thaw Box” – I hope I’m not giving away the ending here – is the only track to have a definite (if rather angular) rhythm structure. The mood here seems resigned, as though catastrophe had already occurred while we were occupied with earlier tracks and all that remains is to recover a frozen body, or frozen bodies.
It is mostly quiet, with no sudden earth-shattering climaxes, and some listeners may feel put out that the album stays resolutely sparse in its approach to its subject matter right through to the final fade-out.
By the way, you can get the album for just US$5 at Boul God’s Big Cartel page.