From the Harbour is the latest album from David Ian Roberts, an album on which, dictated by well-known circumstances, he plays all of the instruments. Luckily he had an array of instruments readily to hand at home, ranging from acoustic and electric guitars to piano, bass, cello and percussion. Despite this enviable collection, this is, as suggested by Glenn Kimpton in his review of the album, a leaner and more spacious record than his previous Travelling Bright. It’s not the first time we have spoken about musical sands shifting towards a more minimal approach or listeners finding a greater attraction to such music during these times. Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square head) spoke of it when introducing Mason Lindahl’s exploits on nylon string guitar and our own reviewer, Richard Hollingham, noted the draw of such music when reviewing Draft by Hairetis Harper. In his review of From The Harbour, Kimpton concludes From the Harbour is “A quiet and patient delight from an artist continually honing his craft.”
I totally get where they are all coming from…I myself have been increasingly drawn to music where the artist stays in the zone… “…not caring about variation for variation’s sake, content with an artistic statement that doesn’t move from its core.” With that in mind, this new video from David Ian Roberts for Levitate seems most apt as we join him for a walk in dappled-sunlight near the Glamorganshire canal. He tells us:
The video is a single walking shot of the sun coming through the canopy of some woodland where I often walk near the Glamorganshire canal. The shot has no ground in it at all and it kind of gives a sense of levitating through the trees, so it seemed to fit nicely with the song. I was recording the album during lockdown last year and the local nature reserves were a huge source of inspiration and sanity.
Today, Friday (5th February), Bandcamp once again waive their fees for the day, and all the money from sales go directly to the artists. The album ‘From The Harbour’, which we strongly recommend, is available on limited edition LP and download from cambrianrecords.bandcamp.com