Long accustomed to the rhythms of small-batch self-releases, Neo Gibson, who makes music as 7038634357, developed a meticulous mode of craftsmanship on their early albums, which they typically synthesized and recorded solo, seeking formal precision, melodic structure, and an idiosyncratic emotional tenor. But in 2022, on a European tour, Gibson began to feel that their previous work was too inflexibly itself for the aesthetic ethos of live performance; presenting their finely-tuned, studio-crafted work sometimes felt more like playing back audio files than communing with an audience. They wanted to perform a song that was not yet a fully-formed thing, a perfectly smoothed and sanded object-a song that could flow into the audience and come back different in it's echo. While on the road, Gibson began writing with an explicit orientation toward live shows, crafting tracks that were more discrete-rather than seamlessly stitched together-which offered crowds a greater capacity to push and pull against the setlist, and lyrically dense, which allowed them to experiment with variable vocal expression and highlight their instrumental-only work when it did emerge. The result of this monthslong process-writing, performing, workshopping, repeating-is Waterfall Horizon, Gibson's second vinyl record with Blank Forms Editions. Here, several of Gibson's signatures-sustained electronic instrumentation, digital distortion that obfuscates their lyrics, and a slow-burning ambience-are noticeably pared back. Instead, Waterfall Horizon exhibits close attention to the interstices between it's ten tracks. On it, if you listen closely, you can hear Gibson settling into their audience's attention and responding with intentional breathing room, treating the silence between songs-or between sides A and B-as reverently as any other sonic opportunity.
