a r t i s t : Richard Skelton
t i t l e : Landings
d a t e : 2009
l a b e l : Type Records
c a t : TYPE055v
s o u r c e : Vinyl (2xLP)
g e n r e : Ambient/Neo-classical
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2009
t r a c k s : 12
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 97,10 MB
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*Incredible new album from Richard Skelton - initial copies
come with a bonus 20 minute CD album and packaged in a
gorgeous sleeve with different artwork from the CD edition due
out next year - DO NOT MISS!!!* Having recorded a significant
body of work under various guises including A Broken Consort
and Clouwbeck, Richard Skelton returns with a brand new and
long anticipated album under his own name. Following on from
'Marking Time' (originally released via Preservation in 2008
only to be reissued on limited vinyl by Type over the summer),
'Landings' is an album steeped in the wild rural landscape of
Skelton's surroundings. Over the span of just a few releases
he's managed to establish a language all his own, standing
apart from the dominant currents within the neo-classical,
ambient and post-rock genres and becoming known for a
bowed-string variant of modern classical music of his own
making. From the first jagged strokes of 'Noon Hill Wood'
you're instantly aware that you could only be listening to a
Richard Skelton record - the hugely expressive, deeply
mournful string arrangements writhe and overlap, squealing
with harmonic overtones as if the strings were being sawn
into. After only a few early playthroughs, Landings feels like
a more ambitious and substantial package than previous Skelton
outings thanks to an expanded instrumental palette and a
duration that permits the exploration of a more complete and
varied narrative. 'Scar Tissue', for instance, features
tumbling minor-key guitar fragments, creaking along in some
unspecified woodland exterior - you can often hear
site-specific soundscapes of the natural world captured in the
background during these recordings, and in truth the music is
as much about these unusual, deeply atmospheric recording
locations Skelton chooses as it is the instrumentation itself.
On 'Green Withins Brook' you can hear gentle waves of
concertina droning melodiously over the babble of a stream,
while 'Voice Of The Book' is leant a reflective ambience by
the dimensions of the ruined, ancient farmhouse in which it
was recorded. Additionally, this odd and characterful locale
is coloured by incidental knocking sounds that seem to emanate
from the corners of the mix. Even during the less obviously
in-situ productions there's an almost spooky presence hanging
in the air between notes. 'Of The Last Generation' and
'Threads Across The River' are imbued with some kind of
intense and palpable aura - if not an outright sense of place.
Throughout Skelton's catalogue you'll hear pieces masked in
naturalistic reverb, as if he's trying to distance his music
from the listener - blurring the edges with a soft-focus mist,
and that effect is put to especially good use during the
closing moments of Landings: the detached and austere guitar
of 'Remaindered' is like the ghost of a Nick Drake song while
'The Shape Leaves' serves as hauntingly aloof exit music.
Perhaps even more so than on prior works, here Richard Skelton
proves himself to be more than just a modern-classical
outsider and consolidates his status as an auteur with a
singular vision; Landing feels like the album he's been
building up to for some time now. Amazing music.
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01-Noon Hill Wood [08:15]
02-Scar Tissue [01:44]
03-Threads Across The River [08:13]
04-Green Withins Brook [04:26]
05-Of The Last Generation [07:00]
06-Undertow [06:11]
07-Voice Of The Book [07:22]
08-Rapture [02:02]
09-Pariah [04:32]
10-River Song [06:38]
11-Remaindered [05:12]
12-The Shape Leaves [06:33]
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68:08 min