With their incredible debut record, Wyndow capture the contradictory feelings of uncertainty and familiarity of the last 18 months into this experimental time capsule of beautiful melodies, ethereal vocal layers, and powerful lyrics.
Wyndow – Wyndow
Summer Critics – 8 October 2021
It’s not every day that a psychedelic pop duo is born out of a music festival, but that’s precisely what happened when Lavinia Blackwall met Laura J Martin at Moseley Folk Festival and the pair bonded over a mutual love of Robert Wyatt’s music. What became of this encounter was ‘Wyndow’, the newest project of the two already well-established musicians.
Although she has released a number of solo albums, Glasgow-based guitarist/keyboardist/singer Blackwall is possibly best-known from Trembling Bells, the band formed by drummer Alex Nielson in 2008. The second half of the duo is made up by Liverpudlian, Martin, who released her debut album ‘The Hangman Tree’ back in 2012 before being accepted into the Tokyo Red Bull Music Academy in 2014, which allowed her to focus on, and evolve, her psychedelic folk sound.
So, with ‘Wyndow’, two masterful musicians join forces to combine their talents and create some of their most introspective work to date, exploring the feeling of anxious uncertainty felt by many during the pandemic. Fittingly, the album was also entirely written and recorded remotely, with Martin and Blackwall sending musical postcards to each other as they slowly built the album up. Focused entirely on the record’s unique sound, the duo included whatever they felt was necessary to achieve the sound they wanted, without thinking about what genres they would cross or who had to play what instrument.
The opening song, Never Alone, starts with repeating piano notes that blend with cosmic synths as the duo’s transcendental vocals intertwine with the instruments. This song (and the album as a whole) includes some ambient influences which, combined with the pair’s soft and slightly haunting vocals, recall artists like Karima Walker and Lucy Gooch. The pulsating piano and delicate vocals continue into All Cameras Gone, creating a similarly ethereal and transcendental feel. The song acts as a call-back to the dust and crackles of the analogue age, with lyrics like: “Watched the film work, Watched the reels burn.” The music video, directed by Peter Martin, shows these influences more clearly, displaying a range of camera viewfinder perspectives and analogue footage.
Take My Picture was first released as a single all the way back in January and presents a slightly more grand and dazzling sound, while still maintaining the underbelly of melancholy that’s present throughout the album. Piano and light percussion flow through the track before a jazz-influenced solo brings the track to a close, all while synth lines fill out the background of the track. Following this comes a cover of Robert Wyatt’s Free Will and Testament, the song that ignited Blackwall and Martin to start working on ‘Wyndow’. The song’s self-examining lyrics resonated with both artists and encouraged them to explore the themes further. Lyrics like: “So when I say that I know me, how can I know that? What kind of spider understands arachnophobia?” bring to light the song’s themes of introspective uncertainty, exploring the battle between knowledge and knowing; themes that underpin the album as a whole.
Third Tea of the Day focuses more on the feelings of isolation and anxiety felt across the world while the pair were recording the album. The track presents a more eerie and haunting sound, both vocally and instrumentally, and lyrics like: “I wonder what happens when you’re on your own, a spend a whole day without seeing one passer-by” display the song’s alienating themes. Two Strong Legs was the second single that the duo released and, by contrast to the previous track, it adopts a more floating and relaxing sound, with the minimalist piano notes taking centre stage. The song captures a unique feeling of comfort, while its off-kilter sound ensures that the slight feeling of unease never fully vanishes. The expectedly strange music video, directed by Jess Swainson, is equally as abstract as the song, but no less beautiful.
Pulling on a String continues the calming sound of the previous track, while maintaining the slightly sombre feeling, as moments of smooth piano melodies make way for the duo’s powerful chorus. The song is based on the feeling of walking familiar routes and wishing they took you elsewhere, which resonates with the duality of the album as a whole; flitting between the familiar and the abstract.
Next up, Flattened by the Wind opens with minimalist piano notes, which then give way to the duo’s powerful chorus. The following tracks, Woven in Thread and When Winter Comes Shadowing In both take a more sombre and melancholic approach, as slow piano melodies flow through the duo’s delicate vocal layers. The album’s closing track, Tidal Range, begins with a soft percussive background before the duo’s vocals enter in a mantra-like fashion. Strong electric guitar notes appear around the song’s mid-point before making way for the soft piano notes and emotive vocals that have been with us throughout the album, bringing the record full circle for its conclusion.
With their incredible debut record, Wyndow capture the contradictory feelings of uncertainty and familiarity of the last 18 months into this experimental time capsule of beautiful melodies, ethereal vocal layers, and powerful lyrics. The duality inherent in the record is used to fluctuate between both a sense of calm and a sense of unease, often simultaneously. As Martin herself describes the album, it consists of “tunes for whacked out worriers lifting weights in the worry gym,” where “feeling uneasy never felt so easy.”
Wyndow is released on 8 October 2021
Pre-Order via Bandcamp | Norman Records | Amazon