3 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Daniel O’Sullivan

Daniel O’Sullivan clearly enjoyed his time composing a trio of library music albums for the KPM Music Library, as he’s continued the practice with The Pastoral Machine, now for the Sonoton Music Library.

Library music has, in the past, had a reputation of being somewhat faceless, purposefully positioned as a kind of background music to suit various needs. Of course, music connoisseurs have been able to reclaim that definition – fueled surely in part by nostalgia, but also an appreciation for all this underappreciated work, used to score your favorite TV show, or maybe a commercial you never saw – library music has continued all the while, but can get a glow up from appreciators like O’Sullivan, working within the parameters of the scene to give us sing-songy, tuneful pleasures.

The Pastoral Machine is otherwise not a continuation of the previous albums, though: whether it’s the switch to a new library, and / or some self-enforced borders, O’Sullivan’s 12-song album doesn’t necessarily land in the same fuzzily familiar range as what came before; without reading the background, I actually thought this may have been entirely separate from the library music projects. But the short song lengths and “simple” musical ideas are perhaps a giveaway, and, indeed, the bandcamp writeup suggests Dan was aiming for something more electronic, and stripped down. One might view this as advancing along library music’s eras, and proceeding to the 70s / 80s – again referring to bandcamp, the copy mentions Eno, which is fitting. However, the music is very clean, and very present; it’s very modern – which is why I think it didn’t come across as library music to my ears. And this ultimately gives it less atmosphere than the preceding trio, which gets further formalized by some additional takes on track The Oscillating Love, a penultimate tune of woozy beats and female vocals: after concluding song Heavy Feather, we get the instrumental version of Love, and then a remix which my untrained ears mostly just hear as a slowed down version. The original song and these alternates butt against a minimalist electro library music disc, functioning more like a single and B-sides. (To be fair, these two songs are only on the digital version, but they helped clarify my reception to the album regardless.)

In summary: my expectations are totally getting in the way. But it’s hard for them not too, given O’Sullivan’s prior VHF contributions – whether in the library series or otherwise. After several more spins of The Pastoral Machine, I kind of keened on the album’s title: something mechanized, and peaceful, or spiritual. …And that feels like about where I was winding up: The Pastoral Machine is absolutely pleasant, but its inorganicness – that it’s too clearly conceived to be what it is – is a bit of a wall preventing immersion.