The Clouds are Gathered for the Final Storm (album liner notes)
Updated: Sep 24
Track list
Bondi [05:08] Break(ing)down
I. [05:30]
II. [04:19]
III. [05:46] The clouds are gathered for the final storm
I. Intro [07:30]
II. Wind chimes [09:09]
III. Chorale [06:41]
IV. Howlings [02:31]
V. Final storm [10:01]
TOTAL RUN TIME [56:39]
Liner notes
I find it hard to succinctly describe this album, The Clouds are Gathered for the Final Storm. The three works on this record each have a seriousness to them and some kind of “life under existential pressure” theme to them - like life being confronted by finality, wrestling with what could possibly come next. This album is also united by a soundworld that’s somewhat ambient yet narrative-driven with harmonic synthesisers and processed samples. They’re also all born from improvisations that I’ve distilled into structures.
It’s the culmination of more than a year’s worth of experimentation in an electronic musicmaking practice that’s new to me. I’m nervous to share this with you, but I hope you can find something moving and meaningful in this music.
Bondi
The album begins with Bondi. 36 hours after the Bondi massacre, I visited the beach to pay my respect. The weather was terrible for summer with these claustrophobic, low-lying clouds that turned the ocean into a bleak, faded blue. The ocean felt louder than ever, with its constant roaring swell smothering everything else. It felt suffocating.
I wanted to express that feeling of grief and overwhelm by recreating my strange experience of not being able to hear what was close to you because of the sheer volume of the ocean. I revisited Bondi Beach a few months later to take samples of the sand and water as well as field recordings of myself whistling at the beach. Sometimes barely audible through the waves, the lonely whistle becomes obscured by a slow-building wash of sound and the cyclical chords of a simple, muted harmonium patch.
Break(ing)down
Break(ing)down sits in the middle of two extremes. Zoom in and you find awe-inspiring microorganisms breaking down detritus and completing the cycle of life; zoom out and we are faced with the cataclysmic breakdown of ecosystems and life on Earth currently held together by busy little bacteria and fungi. I see it as the tension between two sides of the same coin: breaking down and breakdown.
The sound of the Australian bush sets the scene across the three parts of Break(ing)down, with birdsong at the forefront supported by rustling leaves, babbling creeks, chirping crickets, alongside gentle winds and rain. Mournful currawongs are echoed by the human voice, sitting in a bed of warmth unfurling in long synthesiser tones creating a harmony which sinuously slides between consonance and dissonance. Piercing whipbirds forebode while exultant kookaburras herald. Distortion slowly creeps in, turning the recognisable into the unrecognisable, from beauty to aural detritus. It’s easy to find torment in this, but can we also find beauty in it? Can the distorted be both terrifying and beautiful?
The clouds are gathered for the final storm
The final work on this album (for which it’s also the namesake) feels like an epic, and it can be broken down into five continuous parts:
Intro
Wind chimes
Chorale
Howlings
Final storm
Around when I made this piece, I was spending a lot of time in rural New South Wales watching the clouds slowly form, shapeshift, and dissipate across the huge sky. Even the most ferocious storms and humungous clouds have to start from a wisp. Inspired by the way clouds can shapeshift so slowly that we don’t even notice, The clouds are gathered for the final storm does not hurry, instead taking its time, sitting with each moment.
In the first few days of a residency at Bundanon where I was improvising on the accordion, synthesiser, and drum machine, I listened to a favourite song of mine by Bill Fay called Just To Be A Part, and one lyric jumped out at me:
“the clouds are gathered for the final storm.”
Everything clicked into place when I heard it and suddenly I had a direction for this piece: we were heading for this ‘final storm.’
Air pervades everywhere in The clouds are gathered for the final storm. Notes come out of thin air in the accordion introduction, and as the notes form chords the instrument breathes. Different filters and shaping of synthesiser-generated noise evokes winds and gushes, while processed samples of flapping birdwings and air puffs create scurrying wisps and pressure releases. Analogue synthesiser emulations create ethereal bells and otherworldly sirens that feel suspended in the sky. All of this culminating in a bawling climax of epic scale that swallows you, before dissipating into nothing. Just as all great stormclouds end…
Credits
All pieces composed by Ronan Apcar
Album produced by Ronan Apcar Cover art by Ronan Apcar and Josh Green Liner notes by Ronan Apcar
Bondi
Recorded and performed by Ronan Apcar in April 2026
All field recordings and samples by Ronan Apcar, except:
'vinyl dust' from Elektron Digitakt II factory library
Mixed by Ronan Apcar Mastered by Michael Lynch
Break(ing)down Recorded and performed by Ronan Apcar in May 2025 All field recordings and samples by Ronan Apcar, except:
'magpie' by Peter Virag
'pied currawong' & 'eastern whipbird' by Marc Anderson
Mixed by Nick Wales Mastered by Michael Lynch With special thanks to the Artist in Residence program at The Old School, Mount Wilson where this work was created
The clouds are gathered for the final storm Recorded and performed by Ronan Apcar in September 2025 Title from a lyric by Bill Fay's Just To Be A Part Excerpt of melody and lyrics "the clouds are gathered for the final storm" composed by Bill Fay Field recordings and samples by:
Ronan Apcar (accordion, accordion chord resonances, Sola Hughes vocal loop, Maria Zhdanovich vocal loop, vocals of the Bill Fay melody excerpt)
BBC Sound Archive (thunderclap and thunderstorm)
Elektron Digitakt II factory library (everything else)
Mixed by Ronan Apcar
Mastered by Michael Lynch
With special thanks to the Artist in Residence program at Bundanon where this work was created
The Clouds are Gathered for the Final Storm was made possible because of the support of the ANU Love Supreme Grant, courtesy of Susan Grace, and the time and space to experiment with new ways of making music through residencies at Mount Wilson and Bundanon, both in New South Wales. My deepest thanks and gratitude to all those involved who allowed me to produce this record.
Digitally distributed by Collected Resonances (CR-CBR-008)
CDs produced and distributed direct-to-consumer by Ronan Apcar (CR-CBR-008-CD)
Releases October 9th, 2026
Liner notes © 2026 Ronan Apcar
All music © 2026 Ronan Apcar
Recordings ℗ 2026 Ronan Apcar
Comments