Andy Brown is the engineer and keyboardist for Jessamine, the crew of Silver Apples-worshiping Seattle space-cases voted least likely to come down to Earth and mingle among its flannel-clad compatriots. Jessamine's liquid synth-blossomings and syrupy melodies are grounded in propulsive, Can-schooled rhythms. But Southerning, Brown's occasional collaboration with David Farrell, abandons rhythm entirely, concentrating instead on disseminated synthesizer gurgle and sliding, glass-like ambient textures.
Southerning's TEMPLATES can be dated back to 25 years prior, when Dieter Moebius and Hans Joachim Roedelius recorded their extraordinary CLUSTER '71 and CLUSTER II albums under the watchful ear of Conny Plank. Like the first two Cluster albums, TEMPLATES consists of lengthy, horizontal accumulations of subtly shifting, slightly unsettled sub-aqueous bass and supernatant synth hum. Bubbles of dissolved melody break the surface of "Filament" and "Templates," as though sent up by a submarine gliding silently just beneath a stilled sea. Such gentle sonar disturbances call momentary attention to the invisible activity that gives Southerning's submersive music its lulling momentum.