Imagine the quiet experimentation of Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock developed further, but with Morten Harket on vocals. There is the same blurred angst familiar from A-Ha, but in a chamber jazz setting (acknowledged lyrically on “Polder One”) with tendencies towards systems music and minimalism. The gorgeous chord changes of “The Gap” coexist with the weeping cyclical guitar motif that lights up “Plainfield” or the restless freeform drumming on “Nightsweeping”. Surface tranquillity is balanced out by elements of lyrical disturbance, most clearly on “Waterspace”. (“I could break your spine”). The sort of record David Sylvian should be making.
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