Side 1
1. Sirens 7:06
2. Undercurrent 4:41
3. Set Adrift 6:35

Side 2
1. Depths 19:02

Side 3
1. The Silent Ocean 3:35
2. Aquatica 15:45

Side 4
1. Surfacing 13:17

Carl Hultgren and Windy Weber are a husband and wife duo from Michigan who are among the leading practitioners of modern space rock. At their best they produce vast, heavily reverbed, harmonic walls of sound which are dark in tone yet strangely comforting, cocooning the listener in distortion and feedback of the most beautiful kind. In some ways they are best experienced live, thanks to Carl’s on-the-spot ability to fill the venue with multiple and varied layers of rippling guitar from just the one instrument fed through numerous FX pedals, while Windy provides bass guitar and occasional softly sung vocals. Audiences are encouraged to bring pillows so that they can lie back and lose themselves in the intoxicating sound. Their debut album, the space travel-themed ‘Portal’, and the follow-up collection of love songs ‘Drawing Of Sound’ are both highly recommended, but it is their 3rd album (and first for the pivotal Kranky label) that ranks as their greatest musical statement to date. ‘Depths’ is a huge and brilliantly sustained double album which sees Windy & Carl employ their own distinctive techniques to take the listener to the deepest, most mysterious parts of the ocean and safely back again. It is ambient music of the most substantial and involving kind – rather than merely providing background music it transforms the room in which it is being played, drawing the listener into the record’s own carefully created environment.

Opening track ‘Sirens’ fades in suddenly on a descending 4 note scale that repeats over and over amidst tidal waves of reverb and distortion, swallowing the listener whole. The listener becomes that blurred melody, just audible/visible within the layers of noise. After 6 minutes the cacophony resolves into one chord which holds for the final minute before segueing into the sparser ‘Undercurrant’. Anchored by Windy’s bass, we are taken into calmer waters where her soft, almost inaudible vocals and Carl’s rippling guitar provide an environment of safety and reassurance. Side one’s 3‑piece suite concludes with ‘Set Adrift’, quicker bass notes and multi-layered guitar parts playing in a cyclical fashion, bit by bit dropping away until there is nothing left but the bass and a single guitar which suddenly conclude on one last echoing note, leaving the listener quite alone, with no option but to flip the record over. The title track is a monolith of drone-rock that takes up the whole of side two. It consists of layer upon layer of rippling, reverbing, droning guitar, going through only the subtlest of changes over the course of 19 minutes, conveying the mystery and darkness of the ocean bed. In comparison, ‘The Silent Ocean’ which opens side 3 is virtually a pop song; Windy’s hushed vocals are almost understandable and the guitar and bass hint at actual chord changes. But then it’s back to the drones for the 15 minutes of ‘Aquatica’ which harks back to the space rock of debut album ‘Portal’, the same sounds that described a journey into space here representing a return from the depths. Side 4 is entirely taken up by ‘Surfacing’. A Labradford-esque organ adds a new-found clarity to the sound as the listener returns to the surface and is left to float serenely on gentler currents. As Carl works his way through the full range of his trademark guitar sounds Windy begins to softly serenade the listener to the same tune as her bass notes. The delicate rippling guitar effects give way to soft distortion as we reach dry land and a fade out brings this remarkable deep sea odyssey to a close.