Shelter Press, a subsidiary imprint of Simon Fraser University Press, makes music that is grounded in the decomposition of sound. The catalogue of artists it supports is extensive, but the overarching feeling is that of a steady accumulation of sound that is then suspended in air, stirred, stretched and condensed. This is music of discontinuities, of varying intensities, textures and spatial distribution, and its aim is to convey the slow grinding of nature over geological time.

Laico's "The Flower & The Vessel" is released in a limited edition of 300 with a digipossed CD of the whole. The first thing that jumps out at you is the thickness of the air, the second is a short drone that creeps slowly but suddenly into the mix. The sound is linear, clear and grainy at first, but the shift in texture is quite striking. The quality is not as mind bending as some might make it out to be, but still quite there. The second track "Taut Ribbons" is much more sluggish than the first two tracks, starting from a much denser foundation and working its way towards a much thudder laid down vocal. The result is a much more typical mix of understated vocal tracks.