Gothtober - The Keening :"Little Bird"

Rebecca Vernon's old band SubRosa singer did  flirt with darkness. This love affair is reignited with her new project the Keening, that finds her partnering with With Mountain drummer Nathan Carson. This album proves an exercise in minimalism and restraint for him, as the drums give most of the spotlight to the vocals and orchestrated folk elements that weave atmosphere around them. The first song flows pretty well and engages you. The second song finds the sun setting mood wise and the sounds lulling you into a more hypnotic state. The ethereal moan of the vocals becomes another instrument in a wall of sound tempting you further out to sea, rather than telling a story with a song and having more of a destination with the arrangement. The drums do kick things into place, but the way the vocals are recorded makes it feel you are riding more of a wavelength. 

This lulling ambiance, does still employ distorted guitar that is mixed in the background, making this less about neo folk haunting the mood, and a stormy doom influence bubbling under the surface, but never crossing over into a more metal dynamic. The title track leans onto piano to provide structure, as the vocals continue to hover around it.It might even be less tangible in the manner it floats like a gray cloud.  In some ways this reminds me of the new Myrkur album , though the egregore of this band's sound does not have a Nordic current to it. 

From there the album splits into "Hunter" the first part is a very nicely following folk ballad, that is given lush layers by the violin.It might even be the best song up to this point in the album. It goes to show they can balance the elegant sounds with songwriting that goes somewhere. The movements it progresses through carry their own dynamics.  The second part of "the Hunter" is heavier on the atmosphere with ghostly layers of vocals leading into a finger-picked acoustic guitar. While it has a nice flow to it there is just not as much to hook you in as there was in the first part.

The last song is a 17-minute sprawl, judging by the piano intro I can hear where some fat could have been trimmed as that goes on for the first minute and I half that would have dropped this down to 16 minutes. The vocals come in with the drums and the song begins to move. The result is something more dramatic than I was expected given the rest of this album, it does so in an almost Court of the Crimson King manner, which I am fine with, I just do not give 17-minute songs many repeat listens, but appreciate the journey. I will give this album a 9, I enjoy the mood, and the dark atmosphere it bathes you in. Just released on Relapse.