 
Phantom Orchard
2004
CD
Mego
These Records
39:39 Stewart Gott
29 July 2004 experimental atmospheric | A collaboration between mavericks, this works well on a number of levels. It is a genuinely relaxing, contemplative recording - the swirl and drone of 'Ghostlake' for instance, a thoughtful excursion into a wistful world of whistle and wallow. At the same time there is something more than a little eerie about each of the pieces - the throbbing harps at the centre of opening track 'Jezebel', the underlying laptop jabber of 'Miura', the rolling theatrical piano of 'Savage Flower'. Then again, it succeeds in its happy union of "real" instruments, those harps in particular, and digital technology. This is a record that's a little out of focus, despite the crystal clarity of the recording technique employed - like the very start of a cancer eating away at a healthy organ, like black clouds seen from a distance on a sunny day. If "Phantom Orchard" was a dog you might pat it on the head, but you wouldn't turn your back on it. Innovative material, beautiful and dangerous. Mego are, yet again, to be applauded for releasing stuff as good as this, which - without them - we would probably never get to hear. |
