SOLARFERENCE

Lips of Clay is a collection of traditional British folk melodies treated by Sarah Owen and Nick Janaway in their signature style using lots of samples and effects to give their material a really unexpected spin. I'd say Lips of Clay is their most transparent and accessible album, in the sense that they use the most consistent concept here, and the lovers of beautiful delicate folk have the mostly traditional acoustic guitar and the beautiful and natural voices of the two members to stick to. The selection of the material is just stunning, some of the most haunting and beautiful melodies enriched by a few more earthly and rhythm dominated songs. The singing is flawless, with good use of the harmonic interplay between the male and female singer.

The key question then is how appropriate the listener finds the electronic treatment of the material. There will certainly be the odd purist out there who thinks this is a sin (apart from the people who have no ear for this kind of folk music anyway), but for me this is mostly very tastefully done and as somebody who likes his music with some experiment and surprises, I am much better entertained and enthralled by the creativity that is on display here. Much of this can actually be heard as unsettling undercurrent behind the superficial niceness - the subjects of the songs often evoke such feelings as well so it is actually quite fitting even though they overdo the odd effect (particularly delayed voice) on occasion.

The outstanding numbers here are the hypnotic Milder and Mulder with hints at gothic aesthetic (I'm not talking goth rock here!), the perfect unit between lyrics and music that is Cold Blows the Wind, and Bobbie Allen, another spellbinding melody showcasing the musicality that still dominates the electronic trickery. Not every track is a total winner, but there is enough variety, and overall it is a very good and original album. 3.9 stars.

— First review of this album —

Solarference are Nick Janaway and Sarah Owen, and their trademark is to combine traditional English folk melodies, using both of their pleasant voices, sometimes with intricate two-part singing, with innovative electronic sound experimentation, involving sampled sounds as well as manipulation of their singing and often rhythmic use of delay. I thought in order to celebrate the admission of Solarference to PA I write a review quickly. Probably I should go for their best album first; problem is only that it isn't really clear what their best album is, because at least as far as I'm concerned, the quality of their output is very constant. So I made the somewhat dubious decision to review the album first that is most difficult to get into, at least if you listen to the music on its own.

In fact, the music is a soundtrack to the iconic 1920 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde film, which you get combined with the soundtrack if you buy the album on Bandcamp. It is also recorded live, involving some improvisation, and therefore listed as a live album, although it contains 100% original material, and actually both of Solarference's live albums are rather regular albums recorded live than some kind of "best of" or "our latest albums on tour" live albums.

Obviously the film adds some entertainment to the music and will help some listeners to appreciate the music more, however I wouldn't think of this as a soundtrack made for optimally accompanying the film in the first place, rather the film acts as inspiration for Solarference's music. On the other hand as a project this is conceived together with the film. As somebody who has more often than not (and first) listened to the music without watching the film, I'd say both film and music give a somewhat unexpected spin to each other, and surely make a fascinating combination. Rather than going mostly with what is actually seen in the film, the music seems to concentrate on thoughts and feelings that sometimes the personalities in the film, but more often a spectator may have - doubt, tension, apprehension, anxious anticipation of possible things to happen, although they have some nice and fitting sound alchemy for the "Dr. Jekyll doing science" and a few other scenes.

Concentrating now on the music on its own, it is actually striking how adventurous this album is. Of all Solarference music released up to now, this goes furthest into experimental electronic territory with almost no use of harmonic guitar or keyboard, which appear on other albums. There are some strong melodic elements and a few songs and song-like parts, in typical Solarference poetic folk style, mainly carried by the voices (particularly Come to my Window in the beginning, and Prickle Holly Bush). Otherwise we get an atmospheric often free form sound world, sometimes far from tonality, in other places reminiscent of the space adventures for which some progressive electronic bands go, or the cold landscapes and horror film moods of Art Zoyd (which of course means that as an Art Zoyd fan I love this). In terms of what is tried out here, it is quite rich in ideas, however also minimalist in the sense that at any given point in time not that much is going on (often just a single sound idea), which sometimes, when the music is listened to on its own, works very well in a meditative contemplative way, and sometimes seems a bit empty without the film, which is really the only criticism I have, and it isn't really fair as criticism because Nick and Sarah of course want me to listen to this together with the film.

Overall this is a very strong project that may appeal both to the fans of the darker and more experimental side of progressive electronics, and to those who like these nice English folk melodies but are happy to hear an original surprising take on them. 4.1 stars.