After releasing album For Varying Degrees Of Winter with cold winter ambient in 2007 Lawrence English proceeds his illustrations of seasons with the work A Colour For Autumn released by label 12k. Autumn, performed by this musician, sounds as if you were observing it in a small European town, through dusty window glass covered with steam. Thoughtful emptiness of wet streets covered with yellow leaves comes side by side with the darkened nature landscapes - they are joined by silence and unruffled calmness.The feeling of flight in the first track "Droplet" catches you suddenly like a gulp of chilly, fresh air or the smell of wet leaves. The shapeless sound stream covers your body with mat mantle of rain drops. The sound stream is perfectly interspersed by vocalism of Dean Roberts not singing but playing with his voice as if it was a wind instrument. Melancholic guitar, drone and the tiniest threads of microsound in "Watching It Unfold" bring down and slow down the course of time. This theme is proceeded by one of the most beautiful parts of the album, track "The Surface Of Everything", created together with Christian Fennesz. Here one can find the ideal balance of dense, low sounding of acoustic instruments with "tasty" electronics rustling. Perhaps here exactly one can reach the deepness of immersion into colors of autumn and look into its wet eyes, then you helplessly yield to the soft, feeble "Galaxies Of Dust" and get stopped by the gust of light wind. Final "Stillness In Motion" and "... And Clouds For Company" are like parting with warmness and sun, watching the slowly and quietly nature's dying away.
A Colour For Autumn can be compared to a small exhibition of autumn photo... Let it be that the photographer is a young man of 30 years. He's lonely, he makes both film and digital pictures, he likes to go to the suburb and drink red wine in the evening. Also he can feel deeply... It's one of the central points and that's very important for a creative person, even for an imaginary photographer, whose works I would look at to the accompaniment of the new album of Lawrence English. I like the fact that 12k releases the ambient music, which is created by people able to feel and waken the feelings of other people. This good and very nice trait remains in A Colour For Autumn, turning it into worthy and memorable release.
- 12k
- Lawrence English