"For Waiting, For Chasing" is the fifth release by Pan.American which is the solo project of Mark Nelson, also of Labradford. From a technical point of view the album is a sensitive combination of the electronic domain [synthesizers, computer] and acoustic instruments [guitars, percussion, flugelhorn], with the latter involving friends and musicians like Steven Hess [percussion] and David Max Crawford [Flugelhorn]. But it is not about the process or the media, which have been used. It is about how elements and structures are put in a detailed relation to each other ... ending up in a slow-moving, breathing organism. Filaments of percussive elements condense to polyrhythmic elements, layers of sound, instruments and field recordings merge to build up a mystic parallel, not so much fictional world. As Lexie Macchi wrote about a previous Pan.American album in "Your Flesh": The songs don't progress so much as emerge from a substrate of silence and blank tape, carving pale shapes out of a dark canvas.
In fact "For Waiting, For Chasing" has a strong emotional content, if the term emotional would not be so often misunderstood as "being expressive". There is a very personal trace throughout the album, outlined by the artist himself:
"This music began in 2004 when my partner Kindon was pregnant with our son Lincoln. A regular part of our visits to the obstetrician was listening to the baby's heartbeat. The Doctor would move a microphone around Kindon's belly and at first we would only hear a low-fi rumble. As the Doctor narrowed in on the baby there'd be a distinct rapid and watery throb. I recorded these sounds on Mini Disc and Kindon and I would look at each other and smile like idiots. An element, usually processed, of these recordings is in each of the tracks on this record. It means a great deal to me to share some of the chaos and grace of this time in our lives. Thank you for listening." [Mark Nelson a.k.a Pan.American]
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