(3/6/5) 030: Afterlands - Whale Song
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Sorry today's post is a little later than usual.
I spent the weekend finally getting lost in the debut album from Afterlands - the new project from Rick Redbeard of The Phantom Band and David McAulay (Strike the Colours). I'd meaning to carve out time for it, having enjoyed the glimpses of it we were shown before its release.
And it makes for a beautiful journey, a simmering landscape to get lost inside of. Rick's voice is always one to treasure, a drawn-out baritone that often, especially in his quieter moments, rolls forward like a narrator of tales as much as a simple singer-songwriter.
This new record - released a few weeks ago via the excellent Lost Map label - is all Scottish gloom, wind and rain swept vistas lit up by some kind of untapped magic that you can't really see but are always aware of.
Rick and David are joined across the album by a number of guest musicians, a veritable collection of stalwarts from the Scottish music scene: Johnny Scott (Chvrches) and Joe Smillie (Modern Studies) on drums, Jessica Argo (Glasgow Improviser’s Orchestra) on theremin, Pete Harvey (Modern Studies/Andrew Wasylyk) on cello and Kev Brolly (Admiral Fallow) on clarinet. The result is a sumptuous swelling of sound and atmosphere, a rich and stormy tapestry for these folk songs to bring even finer detail to.
There's also one other guest appearance that gently lights up the record, that of Jill Lorean, formerly of Sparrow & The Workshop and now crafting excellent solo records of her own. She performs two duets on the record, 'Whale Song' and 'Ghosthouse', and it's the former of those that perhaps best illuminates Afterlands' charm and eccentricities.
Tender and brooding, the pair's voice cast mesmerising shadows; creepily shaped branches swaying under the glow of the moon. "All I know is a fire won't light by itself," they sing, a palpable sense of romance and ambiguity, a captivating story whispered down from generations before them.
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Listen on GFP / Buy on Bandcamp
Afterlands play some live shows this June, in Glasgow / Aberdeen / Edinburgh
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