People believe all sorts of strange things. Everyone used to believe in witches – some still do. Unfounded rumours have always spread like wildfire. And, of course, fire was often the preferred way to rid the world of that evil wizardry. But fire never seems to expunge belief. How many Christian martyrs were burned at the stake? And how many believers truly changed their allegiance? Persecution, it seems, turns people away from the path the authorities have chosen, not towards it. And yet, powerful institutions still try to force their system of beliefs on the populace. Will we never learn?

I can only speculate that questions like these are behind the choice of Burnt Belief as the title for the collaboration between Jon Durant (guitars and synths) and Colin Edwin (fretted, fretless and double bass). There may be a clue in the title of a track from their Emergent album, Confidence of Ignorance. Or am I reading too much into it?

Colin Edwin has featured in these pages only in passing: his Passing Clouds track featured in a post about a free EP, appropriately enough, from Burning Shed. He is better known, though, as the bassist with Porcupine Tree and as a participant in numerous collaborations. Jon Durant, on the other hand, is making his first appearance on the Crotchety Man blog. His sound is often described as “cloud guitar” – ambient and atmospheric, much like Stephan Thelen (and there can be no higher recommendation than that).

Edwin and Durant have released three albums together: Burnt Belief (2012), Etymology (2014) and Emergent (2016). A fourth album, Mutual Isolation, is due for release on 22nd October. The best description of their overall style that I can find is from a review of their second album:

Etymology: … progressive ethno-ambient fusion …

The Burning Shed website

Crotchety Man gives Burnt Belief an unequivocal 5 stars, his highest award. Here’s a sampler:

Bandcamp is currently offering all four albums for less than $25 and that’s an offer you can’t refuse, believe me.