TALVIHORROS
Music In Four Movements
HB13
Hibernate Recordings 2010
04 Tracks. 42mins28secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Behind the rather enigmatic Talvihorros moniker is Ben Chatwin, a London-based experimental guitarist and musician whose debut album, Some Ambulance, was released on Benbecula last year. Chatwin uses a vast array of acoustic and electric guitars, vintage electronic equipment and percussions to develop extremely effective atmospheric soundscapes. Chatwin’s debut album presented relatively short pieces which acted as impressionist textural snapshots. With his latest opus, Chatwin takes a very different approach as he focuses on much longer and more complex pieces, expanding on the work he did for the extremely limited cassette-only mini-album Let Us Be Thankful We Have Commerce, which he published on My Dance The Skull earlier in the year.

As its title suggests, this album is made up of four pieces, described by Chatwin as suites, which, while seemingly unconnected, share the same sense of introspection and aesthetic, and follow the rather sombre narrative of ‘the final days of someone who has decided to end everything’ by drowning into the sea. Predictably, the mood is particularly bleak throughout, relying heavily on slowly evolving sound forms, built from processed guitars and electronics, upon which Chatwin attaches sporadic melodic cycles.

As the album progresses, the mood becomes increasingly heavier, at first defined on part one of A Continual Echo Of The Sound Of Loss by constantly changing textures, with various brushes of distorted guitars giving the piece a gritty aspect never heard again to this extend on the record, then on the second part by much more minimal sound forms where an acoustic guitar resonates against a vibrant electronic backdrop or languorous waves of synthetic strings scrape against a set of dark drones. This is progressively replaced by much denser and sparse guitar textures on the epic Thoughts Of Violence. Through the eighteen minutes of the piece, the tone changes a great deal, as the mournful strums that characterise the early part of the track gradually disappear in the background while an increasingly sombre and sterile drone develop over the second half, until layers of treated distortion and electronics add to the solemn tone of the piece. In the last section, there is a sense of peace that prevails as a lone drone takes shape once again. The concluding piece, … And Then They Walked Into The Sea opens with the sound of footsteps and concludes with the sound of someone walking in water. In between, the focus is entirely on a serene acoustic guitar melody which, placed against an electronic backdrop, becomes even more potent.

Unlike its predecessor, Music In Four Movements was conceived as a complete standalone piece of work, and is therefore much more coherent. Ben Chatwin’s already refined soundscapes have gained in contrast and complexity, his music in depth and clarity. This album is the confident work of a musician who is only still scratching the surface of his vast potential.

4.6/5

Talvihorros | Talvihorros (MySpace) | Hibernate Recordings
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD