I especially enjoyed the fact that there is still plenty of room for more experimental sounds and that the delicacy is not the big idea here.
Music of a dark atmospheric nature
Laaps is one of the labels run by Mathias van Eecloo; he published photobooks with LPs/CDs under the banner of Ikki Books, and before that, he ran Eilean Records. The reason for telling you this bit of information is that Andy Cartwright, the man behind the name Seabuckthorn, now has releases on all three labels. He plays guitars, field recordings, clarinet, tongue drum, cymbals and effects.
As with his previous releases, Cartwright recorded this new album at home in the French Southern Alps. I learned that he also plays concerts, and various songs were used in documentaries, films and contemporary dance. It is easy to see the attraction for that as Seabuckthorn plays atmospheric tunes most of the time. Occasionally he’s a bit louder, meaner and less ambient, but thus he created a delicate balance between his various interests. Stage central is the guitar, and he mostly plays it with a bow. It seems to be less on the fingerpicking and strumming of these eleven pieces. Interestingly, he keeps his pieces short, as he did on the other albums I heard of him (Vital Weekly 1189 and 1232), which gives the album a bit of a hurried feeling at times. Sure, there is variation all around, which is excellent, but sometimes I am right into a song that ends too soon.
With the music of a dark atmospheric nature, one can play it all a bit longer, create more space, I think, and one doesn’t necessarily have to keep it brief. Unless there is a specific idea behind keeping these pieces brief that I am not aware of. I must admit I didn’t hear all the instruments mentioned, tongue drum and clarinet, only on a few occasions, but throughout, I enjoyed this release a lot. I especially enjoyed the fact that there is still plenty of room for more experimental sounds and that the delicacy is not the big idea here.
Review by: Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly #1361. Reprinted with permission.
Of No Such Place is available on Laaps. [Bandcamp]
