Loscil

As Loscil, composer and producer Scott Morgan fashions ambient music whose flow moves between intuition and intellect through an ease that masks its craft. From the thermodynamics-themed debut Triple Point in 2001 onward, conceptual frameworks have guided his construction of layered atmospheres and the delicate, nearly subliminal melodies within them. Southwestern British Columbia’s history and striking geography, particularly Vancouver, supplied the impetus for standout releases such as First Narrows in 2004—the first to merge live instrumentation with electronics—and Sketches from New Brighton in 2012. Even as Morgan broadened his scope through the ecologically minded Monument Builders in 2016 and the meditative 2023 collaboration Colours of Air with Lawrence English, the music’s expansive yet intimate character persisted.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Morgan relocated from the city’s eastern suburbs to Courtenay on Vancouver Island during childhood. Restlessness during his teens and twenties prompted him to pour energy into local bands, one of which later featured him as drummer for Destroyer. At Simon Fraser University, where he studied communications and music, exposure to experimental and electronic possibilities grew; training as a sound designer and director acquainted him with computer-music fundamentals and the approaches of twentieth-century experimental composers including John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

That education informed the independent work that followed. Adopting the name Loscil—from “loop” and “oscillate” in the Csound audio-programming language—he performed minimalist dub-, techno-, and ambient-inflected pieces at a friend’s independent theater. A demo album titled A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies, drawn from and named after a physics textbook discovered in a used bookstore, reached Kranky via a friend’s suggestion; the label signed him, and after minor adjustments issued the material as Loscil’s debut. Released in October 2001, Triple Point established both the conceptual foundation and the abstract yet vivid aesthetic that would define Morgan’s output. After a European tour alongside Stars of the Lid, he began Loscil’s second album, turning to underwater craft for thematic and emotional unity while employing heavily processed classical samples to evoke aqueous depth. Submers, issued in November 2002, contained a requiem for the crew of the ill-fated Russian nuclear vessel Kursk.

Wider sonic sources shaped the next album. In addition to samples, found sounds, and computer-generated tones, live instrumentation entered the palette. First Narrows, released in May 2004 and inspired by Vancouver’s Lion’s Gate Bridge, included Fender Rhodes from Zumpano’s Jason Zumpano plus contributions from Destroyer guitarist Tim Loewen and cellist Nyla Raney. Still serving as Destroyer’s drummer at the time, Morgan supplied the remix “Loscil’s Rubies” for the vinyl edition of the band’s 2006 album Destroyer’s Rubies. That same May he released Plume, which again featured Zumpano along with xylophonist Josh August Lindstrom and guitarists Krista Michelle Marshall and Stephen Wood.

Loscil resurfaced in 2009 with the Ghostly International EP Strathcona Variations, which traversed minimalism and orchestral scale. March 2010’s somber Endless Falls advanced further, its closing track introducing vocals from Destroyer bandmate Dan Bejar. The Italian label Glacial Movements issued the limited-edition Coast/Range/Arc in June 2011, a work prompted by the Coast Mountains. Two subsequent albums explored distinct facets of Morgan’s hometown: Sketches from New Brighton, appearing in September 2012, took its title from an oceanside park regarded as Vancouver’s birthplace, while the following year’s Intervalo reworked several of its pieces with pianist Kelly Wyse. November 2014 brought Sea Island, again with Wyse, drawing from the island housing Vancouver’s international airport; that year Loscil also shared a split EP with Fieldhead.

Among 2015 releases were the benefit EP For Greta, created for a friend’s daughter undergoing treatment for bone cancer, and the interactive smartphone EP Adrift, whose elements rearrange with each playback. A distorted VHS copy of Koyaanisqatsi, philosopher John Gray’s writings, and Edward Burtynsky’s photography informed the reflective full-length Monument Builders of November 2016. Further collaborations with Seabuckthorn and Lost Trail followed in 2017. In 2018 Morgan self-released the extended Bannockburn, drawn from an Adrift track. August 2019 saw Equivalents, inspired by Alfred Stieglitz’s early-twentieth-century cloud photographs. Edited Adrift pieces appeared as a free download the next April, and May 2020 brought the photo-booklet-and-EP project Faults, Coasts, Lines, based on images and field recordings from Tofino and Ucluelet, British Columbia.

Returning to Kranky, Loscil issued the luminous Clara in May 2021; its source material originated in a short string-orchestra composition recorded in Budapest onto a distressed 7-inch that Morgan then sampled and reconfigured. September of that year introduced the limited-edition photo book Lux Refractions, paired with pieces derived from the same sources. The two-part collection The Sails appeared in 2022, gathering nearly a decade of music composed for dance projects. The subsequent project united Morgan with Australian composer, curator, and writer Lawrence English; Colours of Air, released in February 2023, employed recordings of a century-old pipe organ to generate the duo’s flickering, shimmering meditations.