Another really gorgeous record to somehow shoe-horn into the top-ten...this one from Microphones/Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum and ex-Eric's Trip bassist Julie Doiron. Here's a bit from my Dusted review, up today:
Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron & Fred Squire
Lost Wisdom
P.W. Elverum & Sun
Elverum and Doiron both have a knack for absolute simplicity. Lost Wisdom is not a long album – clocking in at just under 25 minutes – nor is it especially elaborate. Most of the songs rely on voice and guitar alone to make their case. And yet, how splendid they are, layered and looped in madrigals rounds and descants ("Voice in Headphones") or nakedly unadorned ("Flaming Home").
Still, no matter how lush or spare the vocal arrangements become, the voices themselves remain clear and simple. Elverum and Doiron often join in very tight, mildly dissonant, minor harmonies, the timbres of their two voices melding into one flickering tone. There is no vibrato, no growls or shrieks, almost no dynamic variation. If you had to pick an instrument to approximate their singing, it would have to be the recorder, blown softly and melancholically, without trills or flourishes. By shunning all vocal tricks, Elverum and Doiron arrive at a purity that is in no way dumbed down.
The rest is here.
"Flaming Home"
My show got cancelled last night, unfortunately, so I won't have much to say about the glories of the Dodos or Au.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
still have to give this a listen... bit busy at the moment... thanks bye the way... XXX
Post a Comment