What’s 17,000 km between artistic collaborators in this Internet age? Obviously not a huge amount as the principle artists in this outfit come from Australia and Venezuela. All instruments here are provided by a young Antipodean Brendon Sibraa who has no shortage of other projects on the go either. Vocals are primarily from South American Ausk but there are some guests included too who we will come to later.
Despite name this has quite a sunny and uplifting temperament about it at times. Atmosphere is immediately established by opening instrumental ‘Spectral Horizon’ with rich acoustic guitar work sparkling in the dawn light and reminding a little of Italian film composer Riz Ortolani. Fleshing things out ‘My Escape’ brings about a post black sound and vocals arrive howling with discontent in the background. It is there they largely stay too, the music definitely takes emphasis here with thick strumming guitar and bass and rolling drums. Melody is strong and the sunny vibe of the acoustic breaks adds a feel of hope and touches like a new day coming into life. There’s an Alcest, Deafheaven et al shoegaze vibe permeating this as well as that of another Australian artist who I am still getting to. I’m just not quite sure about the vocals if you can call them that as if they are forming anything in the way of words we are not hearing them defined and one can only wonder if lyrics are important here or if it is just the music doing the talking. The musician gets his inner Chopin in with a piano sonata on ‘The Essence’ and I drift off listening to its indulgent caress. Finally the track opens up with another undefined roar and rolls out but despite being emotive it’s a little too twee for its own good. This is meant to be an act called Coldawn not Coldplay but I am not finding anything particularly adventurous here and it is just plodding and feeling like it is going through the motions.
‘Only Moments’ has a serious feeling of deja-vu about it and I have to come to the aforementioned hinted at artist as this is very much in thrall to acts like Germ, Autumn’s Dawn etc. Melody is strong but again vocals are weak and insubstantial. A hint of spoken word Amesoeurs like suddenly sparks interest, yes something is finally being said here, what it is doesn’t matter as it’s not in my language but something apart from the music feels like it has substance. The track title translates from Spanish to ‘Spring Will Not Come This Time’ but the musical tones are at odds with this message and it feels like that is exactly what is happening after a long cold winter. More bloody Chopin pads out the title track wasting time on another unadventurous number, patience it has to be said is wearing thin. There are a couple of guests mentioned, one is B.M. from Russian act Skyforest but despite listening out I simply cannot say where his involvement comes in. There are some gorgeous female vocals on penultimate track ‘This: Over’ which really add definition. I have no idea who from though they don’t seem to get any credit. Finally on last track ‘My Destiny’ Tim Yatras of aforementioned Germ etc puts in an appearance and with his couple of lines soaring one wonders why this could not lead by his example vocally as well as it is evidently doing so from a musical point of view. Needless to say I found this a bit of a frustrating listen and can’t help thinking why one would want to listen to the pupil when they can easily hear the master on a score of albums.
(6/10 Pete Woods)
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