COLIN BASS & DANIEL BIRO: STILL

Finally this album has landed to PA. When I received my crowdfunded copy months ago, I was unsure about adding it to the site, as it's effectively a collaboration between Colin Bass and the South African keyboardist Daniel Biro.But now it's here and I'm happy to review it. They have composed almost half of the album each. There are 11 tracks and the first one has been composed by both. It's a slow intro mainly based on keys. Despite lasting more than 4 minutes I consideer it just an intro to the album.

I would have guessed by the presence of Colin's fretless bass that he was the author of Summer, but it's Biro's stuff. A catchy slow melancholic song, but let's say that the whole album is slow and melancholic, without being depressing.

Still Life 2 is Bass's stuff. One minute of overdubbed bass in a Michael Manring's way (Bass can even do better than Manring, I think)m Which introduces "Old Europe". Another song showing the very good songwriting of Daniel Biro. The first proper song by Bass is "Once Was A Time", and as it can be guessed from the title, is a song about regret and childhood's memories. It's based on a children's photo which is printed in the CD booklet.

Same for the next song by Biro: Faces. There's a photo of a school class in the booklet. It seems that it's the album's concept.

The picture in the page with the lyrics of "The Man Who Never Was" (by Bass) is effectively depressing: an empty burnt room, a broken piano and a poster of a girl tied to a column. From the lyrics I can't understanbd what it's effectively about, but it describes the photo musically. Well, the last four lines describe what can be seen in the photo. So it's possible that they have had the aidea of starting from the photographs and compose songs related to them. I'd like to ask the artists about it. "Still" may refer to a photo shot.

The same applies to "Heaven". It starts speaking about a house close to a river, and the booklet shows a big colonial house in the middle of a forest. From the architecture it may be somewhere in Portugal but also in the Caribbean, who knows.

After the third "Still", Biro breaks the "photo thing: Hands doesn't have a photo related, but the sadness which permeates the album with nostalgy and memories is "still" there. Something about father and son, this time.

Bass closes the album with the last "Still". The short lyrics are about death: "From the liquid plasma grave...deny the signs of the end of the days".

A sad album. A sadness that hides a little touch of newage. Excellently played but very essential: mainly bass and keys, with vocals and little more.

It's perfect for this season, on a sofa with a drink in a rainy locked down day.