Lore City – Queen City Sounds and Art

Eric Angelo Bessel’s Ambient Single “Scavengers” is an Enigmatic and Haunted Evocation of the Mysteries of Hidden Depths

Eric Angelo Bessel, photo courtesy the artist

Eric Angelo Bessel is half of Portland, Oregon-based, ambient post-punk experimenters Lore City. With solo work the sound palette is more abstract and ahead of the October 31, 2025 release of his second solo album Mirror at Night, Bessel offers the single “Scavengers.” All the sound sources have a quality as though having passed through the ocean before reaching your ears so that the tonal lines don’t doppler so much as they might with the wind but resonate in a linger and trailing manner. Like an impossible piano being played at the bottom of the ocean with its notes intact, a Phantom of the Opera of the depths, a piece for the lost episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau in which the crew discovers the entrance to the ruins of Atlantis or at least their showcasing the wonders of the underwater constructions of Nan Madol. There is something of a spirit of wonder to the track as much as it is enigmatic and when it’s over all too soon it leaves you yearning for more of the mysterious side of our world not yet completely mundaned by overexposure. Listen to “Scavengers” on YouTube and follow Eric Angelo Bessel at the links below. Mirror at Night will be available on limited edition 12” vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Eric Angelo Bessel’s Alluringly Enigmatic Ambient Composition “Secret Lake” is Like the Soundtrack to a Lost Episode of The Twilight Zone

Eric Angelo Bessel’s enigmatic ambient track “Secret Lake” from his newly released album Visitation (April 21, 2023 via Lore City Music on LP and digital) hits like memories of waking up in the middle of the night as a kid with a strange TV show on called The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits and catching only a section with beautifully evocative music and a black and white scene of an alien landscape or a walking on a strange landscape no earth and having no narrative framing to place what you’re seeing, just the emotional resonance where your brain is mixing dreams with the conscious mind before you get back to sleep. The sound of bell tones and background drones as the slow and tactile melody runs its course in hypnotic patterns and echoing ever so slightly like the theme music to Days of Our Lives but far too off into psychedelic dreamspace to tap into the mundanity of a daytime drama. Yet the song in its evolving repetitions feels like something intimately familiar with fond associations yet tantalizing and paradoxically comforting. It’s a unique composition in the realm of ambient music which can often utilize the same sound sources and same-y arrangements. It’s like the soundtrack to a lost episode of The Twilight Zone which we all wish we could see or from the buried fifth season of Channel Zero. Listen to “Secret Lake” on YouTube and follow Lore City Music, Bessel’s label with his wife Laura Mariposa Williams, at the links below.

Lore City Music on Twitter

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Lore City Evokes the Soothing and Mysterious Physical and Sonic Presence of Distant Machinery in the Night on “Very Body”

“Very Body” is half of the new Lore City EP Under Way (available now digitally and on black 7” vinyl via the project’s Bandcamp linked below). We hear in the distance a hovering sound like distant aircraft passing by in the night. The resonance of distortion in the tone streams through the track as a background tone creates a sense of space. The feeling it conveys is not unlike seeing light over a horizon at night and feeling the sensation of a deep thrum felt in the body from the vibration of unseen machinery like a large engine too far to fully make out but close enough to create an ambient sensation and an aural effect both calming and mysterious not unlike becoming aware of the sounds of a nearby urban airport. Fans of The Sight Below will appreciate the tactile quality of the modulated drones here and how it indeed has an undeniable physical presence in the hearing of its orchestrated tones. Listen to “Very Body” on YouTube and follow Lore City from Portland, Oregon at the links below.