Heavy Eyes is a new longform work from Seawind of Battery that plunges the listener into deep waters. Over an immersive thirty one minutes, Mike Horn and Jarrod Annis craft something more nebulous and less immediately knowable than any previous release under the Seawind of Battery moniker (the closest parallel being perhaps a series of collaborative releases with fellow zoner ragenap, also on Eiderdown). The piece opens with a pulsing single note over a field recording of chattering crickets. Layers of drones and textures rumble underneath while melodic guitar and lap steel weave gracefully closer to the surface, somewhere between raga and shoegaze. There is a level of tension throughout the piece that sets it apart from Horn and Annis’ previous works; the brooding, ominous atmosphere deepens with the introduction of a booming bass drum bathed in reverb. Only when Annis’ lap steel starts gliding above it does the tension ease a bit. In the track’s final moments, the layers of drones trail away and the pulsing note from the beginning reemerges. Heavy Eyes opens up new paths and possibilities for Seawind of Battery, patiently unfolding over its extended runtime and promising new heights (or depths) to be explored. - Stefan Beck (Golden Brown)