It sounds like cellotape. Then a violin enters. A tremolous violin, with ebbing into sunny warm drones and crackling field recordings. Sounds like Hakobune. Yes, very much so. But something else. Something of its own making, with a slight heightened tonal register to widen the acclaim. Nothing pernickety, just a sound palette that refuses to stay the same.
This is the opening moments I recall from listening to Sound Meccano – Salty Wind And Inner Fire. Glockenspiel sounds and stretching of strings entwine together after a few minutes, a new depth is made to universal consonance in art. I like it very much. The music is natural, soft yet sharp, almost. Apple-like in its clusters of waves that dot the aural matrix; an aftermath of a cyclone 300 years earlier.
What one picks up immediately is a leaning towards a “sticking point”. The sounds of gleeful young children playing, while pastiche to some ardent critics, confirm this notion, and it comes across superbly to my ears. The tones continue to wander like an overcoat following the footsteps of a lonesome traveller, looking for her or his home place. To hear the strings soften and careen somehow speaks to the heart.
I enjoy the wide range of introduced sounds on this release, but it’s the composition standard that I enjoy most, as for if this was not expertly constructed, the tropes could fall flat under a single wrong note. While slow to develop, a vein with frost dividing the exit, there is a definite ease of warmth filling up the ears that is immensely gratifying. Jura Laiva has mastered the art of understatement, one step at a time. This is a special month for Eilean, do not look past it. Wonderful. Essential purchase!