The members of Black Moth Super Rainbow never seem to be at a loss when it comes to choosing captivating titles. Branching out as The Seven Fields of Aphelion, BMSR’s Maux Boyle has just released her first solo album, which echoes the full band’s love of melody, but eschews their penchant for dizzy timbres and sun-dappled psychedelia. Instead, Seven Fields seems to reflect a softer, more feminine sensibility, invoking muted hues that are better suited for grey skies and solitary moments. There are no beats to be found on Periphery, such that these ambient soundscapes all suggest a still, pensive sort of atmosphere, populated by lost chimes and forgotten memories. The album’s most tangible focus comes from the keys of a treated piano, whose wandering melodies act as the only truly conscious element looming through the album’s hazy backdrop–a place where spectral pads fade into the fog and wispy synth lines curl around tall, barren trees somewhere in the distance.
As a satellite project, the sonic distance from BMSR’s well-defined sound makes it something worth checking if you are a fan, if only to isolate another individualized aesthetic inside of a band so infatuated with ego death and other related concepts. However, if you measure Periphery strictly on its own merits, it is slightly faceless but mostly pleasant, as gentle as it is haunting, and practically tailor-made for a rainy, contemplative afternoon.
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