Regret, Forget, Reset, Repeat

A drum roll introduces a sorrowful trumpet fanfare. Perhaps Don Kyote is remembering the balmy days of Summer, now receding into the murkiness of our memories. But we know the seasons will come full cycle. After the Winter reset, Spring and Summer will return – Nature’s weather forecast playlist forever on repeat.

Adeline

Looking ahead to late Autumn, we find November South singing a pop/folk/country song about a lost love. His finger-style guitar is embellished with a tasteful arrangement of strings, keyboards and acoustic bass. According to his Spotify About page, this November is an accomplished craftsman working in wood, stone and hide as well as sound. He specialises in “Osage selfbows, flintknapped knives and arrowheads, and brain-tanned buckskins”. His dedication to traditional skills and a more sustainable way of life is deeply ingrained in his deep, rich, comforting voice.

Return to Centaurus

The Oz band, Mildlife, have produced a hybrid of jazz and funk for our harvest fruit basket. There are echoes of Earth’s fertile Landscape as they plan a return journey to Alpha and Proxima Centauri. There are words to the song, but they are so heavily processed that it’s impossible to discern the lyrics. Are they going back to their home planets, or just making another trip to one of their favourite off-world holiday resorts? I’ll let you decide.

O My Fathers

In this live recording, the familiar voice of Kray Van Kirk (The Queen of Elfland, Shiloh, Midnight Commander) delivers a protest against the privilege that some enjoy as an accident of birth. In his opening remarks, Kray attributes to Woody Guthrie the idea that a song should “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. He then shows us exactly how it should be done. The sound of his folk guitar and favourite-uncle voice would sooth the most agitated soul, and his humble rejection of patrimony should be enough to unsettle the sons and daughters of dynasties of all kinds, whether royal, business or criminal.

Rock Bottom

Nothing much grows on bare rock, but without it there would be no soil in which our crops can grow, and no harvest to feed us. Ultimately, rock is both the source material and the support for the soil. It is the foundation for all life on the land. But Rock Bottom has very different connotations. Far from something to celebrate, it describes a feeling of deep depression. And it is that stifling melancholy that assaults our ears in this Ninet Tayeb and Steven Wilson song.

Night Tales

The instrumental bedtime story that Jambal and Tristan De Liège bring opens with the ring of guitar string harmonics. That’s curious because none of the sources I have consulted list a musician who plays that instrument on this track. No matter. Somehow, Jambal, the young jazz quartet from Luxembourg, and De Liège, a Belgian electronic/downtempo artist, have brought forth a lullaby worthy of Brahms or Gershwin. The sleepy baby will love the flügelhorn and vibes just as much as you will.