Roo Panes
The Summer Isles
Leafy Outlook/Believe UK
24 March 2023
At the heart of Roo Panes’ ‘The Summer Isles’ are nostalgic memories and wonder, bolstered by deceptively complex music with soft, subtle hues that frame images expressing romantic joy and beauty, a road map to love.
There’s something quite openhearted and innocent about The Summer Isles by Roo Panes, deceptively so, much like love. It seems so simple, yet it’s remarkably complex at the same time. Phrases layered upon phrases create something much more intricate than the sum of its parts. Panes came up with the name before discovering that The Summer Isles existed, an archipelago off the western coast of Scotland.
It would seem there’s always been a little magic in the world of Roo Panes. Migrating back to Scotland from Canada, he ended up in his old hometown, discovering his future wife who’d also lived there, shopping in the same supermarket, yet never meeting. The piano phrases that open the first track, A Handful of Summer, could easily be those of a curious child, playfully repeated notes built on a sense of fascination and simplicity, put together to stunning effect.
Channelling this sense of being young and free with lyrics that seem to look back on undeniably simpler times added to the discovery of exactly how simple life can be at its core, Panes layers instruments and moments with the palette of a Van Gogh. Soft, subtle hues touch the core of the heart. On I Just Love You, he sings, “Cause she was lying in the sun/ In the quiet corner where the river runs/ Well I wеnt inside and I wrote the words/ I just lovе you.” The lyrics are remarkably unpretentious but also remarkably effective at getting to the point.
The unfolding of his path to love on Suburban Pines plays out with a sense of unforced destiny. Amidst the strumming guitar and simple piano is a tale of living in a small town and realizing the beauty in the ordinary. Panes admits, “I’ve been many places as a musician in my life, but I was struck by the fact that we met where it all began. We’d both lived down the road from each other, shopped at the same supermarket, walked on the same heath, but never met.” The beauty and simplicity played out over 17 verses illustrate a love that was meant to occur with a final question, “So is the real magic/ The doorstep glory/ In the real life ordinary story?”
There is something quite natural about everything on The Summer Isles. Not a note, not a phrase seems forced. While each musical note lends it that feeling of simplicity and childlike curiosity, at the heart of it, this is music with an intriguing level of complexity. Creating the commonplace is never as simple as it might seem.
Across these songs, Roo Panes projects a nostalgic wonder, one that’s often found at the heart of love. Using a painter’s brushstrokes, images are framed with colours that express romantic joy and beauty. Visiting The Summer Isles should become an integral part of who you are, and a road map to love.
Live Session
Live Shows:
08/06/23 – Union Chapel – London, UK
13/06/23 – Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL
15/06/23 – Heimathafen – Berlin, DE