daniel patrick quinn - the winter hills
a double cd set, cd1 has 4 tracks and features daniels unique voice, set against sparse instrumentation, the second cd is all instrumentals.
how to describe ? well, for once i have no points of reference what so ever. this is completely different to anything i've ever heard, subsequently, i found it difficult to get into and even more difficult to describe.
the only thing that kept coming to me when listening, was that the music was born of another time and place.
it's like the sounds and songs that you would expect when lost and then finding yourself stumbling into a pub in the far far away hills where the village locals perform rituals of pagan origins
.. a lost soundtrack to the classic film wickerman.
the songs are predominantly pleasant organic drones combining cello,violin,synth some very very subtle percussion, and the voice is quite different matching the spookiness of the setting.
given the right circumstances this would be perfect soundtrack stuff, but for me i prefer the focus on daniels voice as this adds an extra element, as the instrumentals lack the necessary ambience to fully relax to.
in fact the opening track on cd2 'for her atoms' i found hard to listen to due to the discordant trumpets, a brave attempt, and, i'm sure there are readers of the wire that will rate this style of experimetation highly.
of the songs though, the title track 'the winter hills' is indeed rather special.
there is also a full length ambient piece called 'jura' available.
i will come onto this once i have absorbed the music as a whole ..