ashesofyourcares

Aerial Ruin - Ash of Your Cares

There’s something about Erik Moggridge’s voice and richly evocative dark folk style that always makes for a head-in-hand listening experience. It’s quiet enough to be background music, so I could put it on while folding laundry or washing dishes, but that’s not what I want it for. I want to hear it, pay attention to it, and let the emotions and inner vision it brings wash over me.

Moggridge is better known as Aerial Ruin, a primarily acoustic solo project based in Portland, Oregon. He’s also known for his work with Old Grandad and Drift of a Curse. He’s got a new album called Ash of Your Cares, that’s more of the same twilight quietude he gave us on Aerial Ruin’s 2013 split LP with Stevie Floyd (of Taurus and Dark Castle).

Photo by Brittany McConnell
Photo by Brittany McConnell

I’d already been feeling melancholy, and when I put Ashes of Your cares on at first I was worried that I would be sucked into a pit of despair. That’s not what happens with Moggridge’s music, though, at least not for me. Yes, it’s dark and minimal, evoking solitude and loneliness, but it’s also magical and mesmerizing. Moggridge’s voice always has the same tonal quality and the same unhurried delivery, no matter what he’s singing about. It’s soothing and restorative; when listening to it, you can get into your own thoughts but it’s like someone else is thinking them.

Photo by Photic Photographic
Photo by Photic Photographic

Moggridge plays skillfully, employing arpeggios and small but significant chord changes. It’s mostly just him, his guitar and his voice on his recordings. In this case, he’s got guest guitar by Don Anderson (of Agalloch) on the song “Alter,” and layering in the recording process gives the songs more depth than they would have otherwise. Ash of Your Cares gives us eight new songs on the cassette version, which was released by Belief Mower Records over the summer. The CD and digital formats are self-released, with vinyl hopefully coming soon. The tape was mastered by James Plotkin (OLD, Scorn Khanate, Khlyst, etc).

Moggridge just finished up a US/Canadian tour and is planning European and West Coast dates (including British Columbia shows) for fall and early winter plus more touring in 2016. Aerial Ruin’s European tour started September 19 in Sweden and continues through October.

— Vanessa Salvia

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Ash of Your Cares is out now. Follow Aerial Ruin on Facebook.

Aerial Ruin European tour dates

SEPTEMBER

30 – Helheim – Leipzig, Germany

OCTOBER

2 – Radevormwald Lodge, Germany
3 – House show – Gelsenkirchen, Germany
5 – L’entre Deux – La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland
6 – Kultafabrik Wetzikon, Switzerland
7 – SUB – Salzberg, Austria
8 – Infoshop Metelkova + early interview/performance at Radio Študent, Ljubljana, Slovenia
9 – Palah, Rijeka, Crotia
10 – KLUB eMCe PLAC – Velenje, Slovenia
11 – INDE – Koper, Slovenia
13 – OLEVANO LOMELLINA (PV), Italy
15 – Celeste Jazzkeller – Vienna, Austria
16 – Moment – Prague, Czech Republic
17 – TBA – Berlin, Germany

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