The Wardrobe is a collaboration with Sol Invictus driving force Tony
Wakeford and Andrew Liles; the release more resembles Wakeford's work
with Matt Howden than Sol Invictus. Cups in Cupboard is limited to 500
signed copies and is released on Wakeford's own label Tursa.
Tursa
Throughout the album images arise of time passing, empty and dusty rooms filled with the distorted tinkling of a music box, furniture left behind in an abandoned manor, and an atmosphere of grandeur faded and forgotten but not gone. Pianos, strings, and chimes are manipulated, layered, and paired with underlying low snarls. Almost-liturgical chants mingle with muted brass. The music is harsh at times but always stately, muted but never muddy, shrouded but not obscured.
"Arcade" begins as something like a carousel or circus tune, but distorted, dark, and muted as if echoing through thick fog, then deteriorates into something more foreboding before sliding into soft chimes. "Wind in the Willows" brings in footsteps, trickling and bubbling water, and wind sweeping past age-rippled windows. The penultimate track "Windows" has more of a Sol feel than the rest of the album with prominent acoustic guitar.
At a brief 46 minutes Cups in Cupboard still had the power to distort all my perceptions of time. The feeling that's left is of a gentle dread and a yearning for things lost.
samples:
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
