As another year folds out, it is time once again to look back and take stock or the highs and lows, before a fresh year rolls in. 2011 has had its moments and has overall been a rather good year, and trying to extract a list of twenty albums from the hundreds, thousands possibly, that I have listened to, loved, hated, reviewed or not, tried to make sense of or misunderstood seems a pretty restrictive effort at best. Still, it is always good to look back and realise that some records have made more of a mark than others, some almost imperceptibly. So, here is, in twenty records, what 2011 was made of…

1.

JENNY HVAL
Viscera
Rune Grammofon

Review:
There is such urgency throughout this record that it is quite astonishing how Hval manages to retain any lightness in her music, but she does, and [Helge] Sten picks up on just enough to bring it all to life in sprightly bright colours and tones. Continue Reading »

DANIEL THOMAS FREEMAN
The Beauty Of Doubting Yourself
HOMEN025
Home Normal 2011
07 Tracks. 72mins29secs

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

Daniel Thomas Freeman is one third of experimental ambient folk outfit Rameses III, which have been operating since the early 2000s. The trio, hailing from London, have published a number of releases on Firefly, Digitalis, Important Records or Type, and played alongside such ambient acts as Stars Of The Lid, Murcof or Rothko. He now steps up for his first solo record, The Beauty Of Doubting Yourself, a very personal document of his battle with depression and subsequent recovery.

Recorded over a six year period, during which Freeman found himself in the grip of serious depression, the album is split into three distinct sections, the first focusing on the lowest darkest points in his life, the second documenting his journey back from the abyss, while the third sees him returning to a more peaceful and stable state of mind. Continue Reading »