Georgeson - The Solitude Of An Endless Sky LP (Dunk! Records)

NFO

This beautiful collection of songs from Celestial Wolves guitarist Joris De Bolle showcases the quieter and more delicate side of our interests here at dunk!records. While we’ve always been a fan of Joris’ work, and thankful for his numerous contributions to the dunk! lineage, we also thought it would be nice – integral, even – to offer our listeners a respite from the volume and aggression that characterizes the other end of our musical spectrum, especially after the difficult past two years we’ve all jointly endured.

The Solitude of an Endless Sky does just that, and also performs well as a precursor to our new festival space in Gent, which features a theater room where we’ll be hosting a series of performers who work within more subdued, hushed soundscapes. Many of us have come to greatly appreciate the opportunity to engage in a more reflective existence since we last gathered, and if that idea applies to you then Georgeson will prove a perfect addition to your collection. Over the span of seven songs anchored almost entirely by piano and synth, Georgeson demonstrates an ability to touch upon an array of nuanced emotional tones, without ever needing to raise much above a whisper.

Direct, focused, and unpretentious, this is music intended to play on your heartstrings without cluttering itself with unnecessary flourishes. While many post-rock artists who break off into quieter solo work tend to fall under the Neoclassical heading, the compositions here would be more accurately categorized as Contemporary Classical due to their unpresuming ideology and purity of performance. The album is built on a conceptual foundation, but there remains an unassuming innocence even still, as each song seeks only to reflect how the artist felt at different times as he found himself gazing up at the sky. In large part, the musical representations of those moments and feelings maintain an effortless grace, and only begin to hint at more complex themes during the final track “The Ballad of the Ninety-Nines,” which brings in four different vocalists to illustrate the inspiring and tragic story of Amelia Earhart.

The Solitude of an Endless Sky is a refreshingly straightforward, honest piece of work that’s also very well-paced, emotionally striking, and sequenced in such a way that it presents an ever-escalating dramatic arc without sacrificing quality in its front half or suffering from awkward tonal shifts as it progresses toward its finale. It is a genuinely elegant and moving record that asserts itself confidently while managing to maintain a humble and introspective presence, asking only that the listener agree to share a quiet space with it.

– Young Epoch