Ephemeral (The Weight of Now) – Caleb Knowles (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If album titles are often arbitrarily chosen, perhaps merely for effect or just taken from the name of a track, Ephemeral (The Weight of Now) feels like the perfect summation of the music Caleb Knowles presents here.

Defined as something fleeting, temporary, or intangible, the word captures the essence of this collection beautifully. This is music that you seem to encounter and digest through some form of sonic osmosis rather than the more usual aural ingestion.

“Nobody’s Home” sets the album’s tone: taking the form of a sonic wind rising from silence into a loose musical form, carrying with it ghostly signals, drifting textures, and the suggestion of distant radio transmissions, distant in the sense of from far away but perhaps also lost in the swirl of time. From there, “Places, Everyone” introduces neo-classical sweeps intertwined with arabesque vocal lines, as though the stage is being set and the performers quietly assembling. The show is about to begin.

“Something Else Entirely / I’ve Been Here Before” moves even further into abstraction—a delicate wash of orchestral strings that ebb and flow at the edge of near-silence. By the time we arrive at “A Conversation with Tonality (or absence of),” it becomes clear that Ephemeral (The Weight of Now) is not just an album but a musical adventure and exploration—an almost academic meditation on where atmosphere ends and music begins, invoking dialogue and debate along the way. It’s a space that composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Steve Reich would recognize, and perhaps even relish. and revel in.

“In the Key of Overwhelm” is, by contrast, a bigger, more energetic piece (though it’s all relative), ebbing and flowing between lulling lows and striking crescendos, a futurist-classical waltz that builds a bridge between what was and what might be. And “Acceptance is a Virtue” incorporates vocals, well, voices at least, found sounds, and lost conversations weaving through the sonic winds and delicate piano, again, as much a montage of moods and a melody and a musical creation.

But for all its conceptual weight, this is not a detached or clinical experience. Knowles invites the listener to engage with it creatively, to absorb, reflect, and interpret. For many music fans, such music might be frustrating, as it requires patience and attention, but it is ultimately rewarding for those willing to listen deeply. And in that sense, Ephemeral (The Weight of Now) becomes more than just a collection of sounds, goes beyond mere song, and moves past melody. It is an experience, one that drifts, dissolves, and lingers in a less tangible sense long after its sonic presence has faded into the ether.