John Lane is one of the overlooked geniuses in the ambient/experimental world. Somewherecold Records has been championing his work and will continue to do so till the world wakes up to his amazing music. Recording under the moniker A Journey of Giraffes, Lane does it once again with the album Spool which is the fifth album on the label. After the brilliance of Hour Club, Kona, Armenia, and Sunshine Pilgrim Map, Lane graces the world with his fifth release on the label entitled Spool.

The touchstone of Spool is derived from reading WG Sebald’s trilogy of books: The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, and Vertigo. At the heart of these books is the idea of the traveler who must keep moving, documenting, and making sense of the threads by occasionally having to stop and just consider.

Spool likewise chronicles place and time of a personal nature that’s also meant to be personal for the listener.

Take, for instance, the first and last tracks titled “Swedesboro” and “Glassboro”. These are signs of places – not visited- seen by AJOG while driving up & down the NJ Turnpike. A spool of thought rolls out each time those signposts are passed: who lives there? who has never ventured outside there? who couldn’t wait to leave there & traveled as far away as they could? who fell in love there & planted down generational roots? who passed through & had their life changed because they did?

Ultimately Spool is both paradoxically pauses and ceaseless movements. There’s never a shortage of the thread on this spool, we find, even when we think surely it must be running out.

Get your copy of A Journey of Giraffes: Spool today following the bandcamp link below.