When you look at the lineup of Setting, Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joe Westerlund, musicians who have played in groups like Pelt and Mind over Mirrors, the basic premise of four long-form drone-based songs making up Shone a Rainbow Light On will not surprise you that much, but this album still has several modest tricks up its sleeve. For a start, the sound is remarkably egalitarian; you can hear each player performing their part on each song, but the set-up and the mix result in a perfect balance of each musician’s role. There is no frontman here, no stand-out player.
Opening piece We Centre hits well over thirteen minutes and therefore feels no need to rush out of the gate, instead choosing to sprinkle the lightest possible percussion over a very steadily approaching harmonium drone and solid drum line. The song’s pacing certainly brings Pelt to mind, but there is the suggestion of electronics present that steers nearer Mind over Mirrors, with a healthy measure of Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society there too, albeit with more anxiety from Fennelly’s synths.
Zoetropics immediately surrounds us with a more futuristic, metallic sound, with an almost computer-steady percussion beat embellished with sparkles of cymbal and Nathan Bowles’s spectral banjo. His playing is mischievous here; it sneaks around behind the drums and percussion, and you can hear that signature little high tweak that Nathan is fond of and can be heard on his own long-form pieces like I Miss My Dog from Whole & Cloven.
An immediately organic sound is found on the experimental, free-jazz-tinged A Sun Harp, which sees persistent piano notes mixing with the jangly piano zither and a scattered percussion line. Behind these higher parts, bass notes give the piece a sense of foreboding that the shimmering instrumentals hovering alongside the pianos shift to enigmatic. Final song, Fog Glossaries, is darker, with harmonium and synth drones filling most of the space with a thick foggy sound, allowing only some meandering harmonium notes through with some sparse percussion. This murky, industrial soundscape is possibly my favourite piece here, its almost formless nature shifting into thundery drums towards the end, with metallic percussion abruptly ending the album.
Shone a Rainbow Light On is an unusual beast; there is no pretence here, and no performer is trying to overdo things. The overall mood is relaxed and confident, but there are details that will be missed on the first few listens. For all its space and organic spirit, there is a complexity present that the band allows the listener to discover at their leisure. I would certainly recommend doing so.
Shone A Rainbow Light On is out now on Paradise of Bachelors.
As well as being released on Bandcamp and Streaming services, some deluxe offerings featuring artwork by Timothy Breen.
- Deluxe LP edition features 140g black virgin vinyl and a reverse board jacket with art by Timothy Breen
- Deluxe CD edition features a gatefold jacket with art by Timothy Breen
Breen is an animator, multimedia artist, musician, and Grammy-nominated designer who has worked with several artists we’ve previously featured on Folk Radio, including David John Morris, Bill MacKay and Jeffrey Silverstein.
Order: https://lnk.to/PoB72
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