“Mont Crevelt 4am” by Flexagon is an Ambient Tone Poem Evoking the Sounds and Sights of the Early Morning Hours at the Harbor

Flexagon1_Crop — Flexagon, photo courtesy the artist

The baseline for Flexagon’s single “Mont Crevelt 4am,” as for the rest of the tracks of his upcoming album Nocturnes East due out January 24, 2020, is found sounds and field recordings done in the early morning at the time and place cited in the song title. Sometimes the sounds inspire the music, sometimes the music comes first and one of the recordings suggests itself in the pairing. The result is an ambient track with a powerful sense of place, of environment and of a mood that while intentional isn’t purely manufactured. “Mont Crevelt 4am” is named for the location on the southern side of the entrance to St Sampson’s Harbour in Guernsey, UK, one of the Channel Islands near France. It suggests dappled moonlight on the water with the delicate bell tones and drifts of fog with the lingering synth over sound of water lapping against the shore. In the distance you can hear men talking discussing who knows what at that hour. But it all combines to create a kind of tone poem in your mind that takes you to that place, for most of us, a place we’ve never been, which is one of the great powers of music and art generally. Listen to “Mont Crevelt 4am” on Soundcloud and follow Flexagon at the links provided.