A Dancing Beggar offers a shifting pattern of tranquility that produces both a calming and sophisticated landscape – indefinitely mapped out and driven exclusively from an undercurrent of well thought out arrangements – hitting on sensitive touches, and compelling attention to detail.
[Purchase] With a rather un-dramatic poise, this second album from A Dancing Beggar offers a shifting pattern of tranquility that produces both a calming and sophisticated landscape – indefinitely mapped out and driven exclusively from an undercurrent of well thought out arrangements – hitting on sensitive touches, and compelling attention to detail.
A name set to offer up a certain amount of intrigue, A Dancing Beggar is in fact the brainchild of a young UK based musician named James Simmons. This particular album has the added expertise of Ludovic Morin (Sigur Ros, Fleet Foxes, Beirut) who is credited with the mixing and mastering of the final product. The album is fittingly titled Follow Dark as if it were light quite apt for a body of work that takes a strong lead in edging towards a gentle heart warming glow.
Branded as ‘journeys rather than standard arrangements of verses and choruses,’ the mood remains serene throughout, deep and reflective, utilising the intensity drawn from expanding towards field recordings, piano loops and touching vocals. “Creeping into Dusk” is ever so dainty in character with a quest to exaggerate its darkened landscape – a forest of tranquil movements.
Gentle piano notes graciously touch upon “Empty Boats,” almost as if it were gentle reflections and stirrings within the still waters itself, distant vocal colour infused with a mystic passion and a penchant for wisdom and guidance. “Stars Bring Us Closer” opens out like a flower awakening during spring. With plenty of colour, there’s a closeness and strong intimacy that is evident within the gentle music – blends of emotive strings, the distant like callings – all of which leads to a more substantial layering of subtle sounds, working in a splendid way as an effective combination of such delicate emotion. It stands as one of the strongest tracks on the album. With reverb and darkened piano painted in such a way, the next track, “There is Hope Here,” offers up a distinct spellbound ambience. In contrast, “Returning” presents a more distorted feel – affected, with distant echo’s to give the track its illusion of distance. “Forget This Place” runs to similar themes of the previous tracks, with the added feature of vocal works that whisper some magic upon its fabric. “Here Come the Wolves” is the most effective track by far, giving us a nice building of organ like sounds accompanied by an emotive cello and succeeding to deliver the more darker tones, complemented by sacred placement of piano and a brief distant beat lost over a hill side. A beautiful vocal driven melody emerges later in the track along side the piano – now developed further.
The pace throughout does remain very unvaried – being too similar in places, utilizing only a small margin of sounds and effects. There’s no unexpected drama here, or massive crescendos, and in places it can be slow on the uptake. There’s also a lack of beat magic. What does have an elegant feel is the occasional use of very distant & carefully crafted piano, but then it would seem this album is mainly about soaking up those peaceful moments.
Follow the dark as if it were light is out now on Audiobulb. [Purchase]
