The Depths · All albums

F♯ A♯ ∞

Godspeed You! Black Emperor · 1997

• Zone: Twilight (level 3 of 5)
• Genre: Rock, Post-rock
• Mood: apocalyptic, mournful, vast
• Sound: instrumental, long songs, field recordings, orchestral swells, spoken samples, slow builds, drone

F♯ A♯ ∞ is a mostly instrumental album of long pieces split into movements, played by a Montreal collective with strings, glockenspiel, horn, bagpipes, banjo and slide guitar alongside the usual rock instruments. It was recorded in May 1997 at Hotel2Tango and released first as a hand-packaged LP limited to 500 numbered copies. Each piece uses field recordings and tape loops, and “The Dead Flag Blues” opens with a spoken passage from an unfinished screenplay about a derelict city. “Providence” contains about three and a half minutes of silence before a hidden coda. The title refers to the guitar tuning and to the loop at the end of the LP. It helped define apocalyptic, cinematic post-rock, and “East Hastings” was used in Danny Boyle’s film 28 Days Later.

Track list

1. The Dead Flag Blues
2. East Hastings
3. Providence