Requiem for Dying Mothers (Part 1)

Stars of the Lid made music the way glaciers make geography. “Requiem for Dying Mothers” is ten minutes of slowly shifting string drones, bowed and processed and laid on top of each other until the piece stops functioning as music and starts functioning as presence. Nothing happens. Everything happens.

The title does most of the emotional work. Once you know what the song is called, the drones take on a specific weight — the sound of something passing that you will not be able to keep. It is one of the most purely weather-like pieces of music ever recorded. Put it on and let the fog roll in.