“Terra Incognita”
from the album Parallax
2011
iTunes
In Latin, terra incognita means “unknown land,” but this song, the first single from Parallax (Nov. 8), the new album from Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound project, is familiar territory. It’s based around a repeating acoustic guitar figure and then blossoms into something more spacious and astral, which brings to mind “Attic Lights,” from 2009’s prismatic Logos. And like many Atlas Sound (and Deerhunter) songs, too, the first word sung in this one is “I,” reinforcing the project’s typical inward focus. But this one is far from Logos’ dusty, homespun intimacy; “Terra Incognita” sounds roomy and widescreen, the improved production making room for a disorienting, wobbly bassline that runs through the six-minute stunner’s first half. There’s more space, but Cox has no one to share it with: “I know a place called ‘love’/ No one bothered me there/ No, I was all alone.” Then the floor drops out, letting “ba”s roam free into the night sky and producing an aural effect that recalls a line uttered earlier in the song: “Celestial crops/ Carry me home.”