The last in Jonathan Meiburg's trilogy of albums about man's impact with nature, The Golden Archipelago expanded on the baroque post-rock beauty of Rook in what seems like its natural end piece. Edging ever closer to late Talk Talk territory, Meiburg can command a liltingly lush, actively poignant minimal examinations or a stomping, jittery holler towards the horizon. The backing is more fleshed out than before, for the most part colouring in the gaps with delicate swells to match Meiburg's falsetto protestations and limpid central piano, driven by Thor Harris' hypnotic percussion. Never intense as such, they still burst with emotiveness matching the first hand researched lyrical theme of ecological evolution and lost concepts of remoteness. It's a very deliberate album, moving at its own pace and deliberacy, swelling like waves and chiming on the off beat to harry along the orchestral passage or very occasional movement when the levee breaks, breaking up the spooked, solitary arrangements above which Meiburg's tremulous, hopeful voice rises. What results is almost classically trained, a fascinating suite of tranquil lulls and contemplative beauty and the overturning of mores therein, a torch song to the umbrella subject of Meiburg's half decade's work.
[Spotify]
Hidden Lakes
The full list
No comments:
Post a Comment