Braeyden Jae – Fog Mirror LP

On Fog Mirror, SLC based musician Braden McKenna, has crafted a weighted, textural album of architectural drone punctuated with stirring washes of crackling static and arcing tones that gather like visible precipitation on an early morning windshield. Fog Mirror is braeyden jae’s most deliberately paced, emotionally resonant record to date; the aural equivalent of watching a thick gray blanket envelop some distant, cliffed coastline.

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Press:

Tiny Mix Tapes:

“Fog Mirror truly is an epic travelogue that does more than just cover the literal. It carries eons of particles and process, itself a genuine reflection of title and circumstance. We’re often illuminated with such terminology as “fog of war” but Fog Mirror is “fog of existence.” It clings to every living thing it touches, slowly taking a bit of essence as it heavily glides from one locale to the next. It pours forth from Jae with such magnetism, yet its cloud does not dampen or sadden. In fact, as richly textured and ponderous as Fog Mirror has made me, it’s oddly life-affirming.”

Textura:

“Pressed on creamy, baby-powdered white vinyl, Fog Mirror rolls in like an all-consuming cloud of granular dust and static. Listen carefully and melodic fragments, piano chords, and other instrument sounds can be heard buried under the material’s uppermost layers. No instrumentation is identified on the physical package, but apparently McKenna uses bass guitar and presumably a range of effects and treatments to generate the dense, crackling masses that billow through the forty-one-minute album’s five ambient-drone pieces. McKenna generally downplays dissonance and abrasiveness in his productions; instead, the sounds wrap themselves around the listener very much as would, yes, a fog.”

That Special Record *Listed as Essential Listening*

“Braeyden jae’s new album Fog Mirror is a truly stunning ambient drone record – one full of serene sounds, textural drones, with subtle distortions that slowly navigate through distant piano chords. Each track in Fog Mirror is deeply powerful creating moments of peace and calm. The way sounds are layered and arranged is masterful and the glorious washes of crackling static are a strong reminder of why ambient drone musicians should still favour vinyl over digital audio.”