When the Clouds – November Song

The fourth track from The Longed-For Season is called November Song.  Preorder from n5MD.

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When the Clouds – Flooding River

“Flooding River” is the 3rd track from When the Clouds new release The Longed-For Season.  Out April 20th.  Order it here.

When the Clouds – Rise On

This is the second track, “Rise On”, from the new When the Clouds album The Longed-For Season. Preorder available at n5MD. Out Tuesday April 20th.

When the Clouds – The Dawn and The Embrace

This is the first track from the debut album from When the Clouds called “The longed-For Season”. If after listening to this track you don’t click this link to preorder then you should check your pulse, because you’re not doing to well.

When the Clouds – The Longed for Season out Tuesday, April 20th.

The Longed-For Season reviewed by Don’t Pee on the Rug

This is a translation of a review from the music blog Don’t Pee on the Rug. After the translation is a link the original Dutch review.

“This is how ‘A Chorus of Storytellers’ should have sound”, is the first thought that comes to mind while playing ‘The Longed-For Season’. In all fairness, I find that last album by The Album Leaf quite disappointing. But foremost, Francesco Galano, the man behind When The Clouds, with his new EP on Drifting Falling just delivered a very good debut.

To return to previously mentioned band; there also are some similarities. Both make use of a Fender Rhodes piano, glockenspiel and both bands make atmospheric listening music. However (fortunately) there aren’t any vocals on “The Longed-For Season”. I do hear the glitchy post-rock of This Will Destroy You and the soundscapes of Mogwai and Your Ten Mofo, as hearing the crackling electronics of Isan and Múm, to make a few comparisons. According to his artist page, Galano also gets his inspiration from bands like Efterklang, Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor and composers such as Nyman and Glass, not the least of names.

What does it all sound like then? I’m really not into the track-by-track description of a record. Well okay then, just the first song. ‘The Dawn and The Embrace’ (yes, this title looks a bit like Explosions in the Sky’s ‘The Birth and Death of the Day’) begins quietly. A glockenspiel melody is enhanced with some crackling electronics, a guitar, and the sound of strings. Halfway there, as befits post-rock, the song ‘explodes’, to finish with the same sounds as in the intro. If you write it like that, it sounds a bit static, but the execution is truly beautiful. On the rest of the EP I can only say that it is very beautiful and very worth listening.

The debut of this Italian musician is one that is in the eye, or rather, jump in the ear. At first listening, it’s the first half of the record that gets to me, the other sings seem to go on a little (don’t know how to say it exactly, I mean they seem quiet and anremarkable) . A few spins later however, you come to the conclusion that all songs on “The Longed-For Season” are just very good.

Link to the original Dutch Translation

When the Clouds on The Silent Ballet

Posted by on Mar 8, 2010 in new releases, When the Clouds | No Comments

When The Clouds is featured on the latest Silent Ballet compilation, The Silent Ballet: Volume XIV:





Tracklist



  1. The Sight Below: Fervent

  2. The Boats: The Astronaut

  3. Glittering Blackness, Fall: III

  4. ef: Sons of Ghosts

  5. Nice Wings, Icarus!: Eagle

  6. Nervous Doll Dancing: Les Pommes

  7. Nils Frahm: Because This Must Be

  8. Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson: Our Door Handles Stopped Moving Years Ago

  9. Charlieshero: Oh, Good Morning

  10. Radiant City: Key Control

  11. When the Clouds: The Dawn and the Embrace

  12. Arrive Alive: It’s Not What You Say It’s How You Say It

Leonard’s Lair reviews Left to Memory

Jonathan Leonard puts pen to paper, or is it finger to keyboard about the new Matt Bartram album Left to Memory
As one half of The Static Silence, Matt Bartram represents the lighter side of shoegazing with the emphasis on songs rather than effects. As a solo artist, though, Bartram reveals a very different side to the story with his music knee deep in layers of noise.

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Everything Is Chemical reviews Left to Memory

Everything Is Chemical takes a look at Left to Memory by Matt Bartram.
“Left To Memory” is the sound of one man baring his soul underneath a train station. Where lush meets loud, noise becomes soothing, and sublime becomes uplifting. More than exceptional, “Left To Memory” is resplendent, imaginative, & refreshing. For fans of Air Formation, Auburn Lull, Spacemen 3, The British Expeditionary Force, Bowery Electric, July Skies, Soul Whirling Somewhere, etc. Rec-omm-ended.

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Caleidoscoop review Matt Bartram’s “Left to Memory”

Kind words from Caleidoscoop, so far as we can tell. Can anyone provide a accurate translation? Hit us up in the comments.
Het label met de perfect uitgekozen naam Drifting Falling is er één om in de smiezen te houden met hun grote hoeveelheid droommuziek. Dat geldt ook zeker voor de Britse muzikant Matt Bartram, die de afgelopen 9 jaar vooral met Air Formation en daarnaast The Static Silence op uitstekende en veelal shoegazende wijze van zich heeft laten horen. Hij is van de tweede generatie schoenen starende artiesten, maar blinkt daar dan ook echt al jaren in uit. Dat blijkt maar eens te meer met zijn tweede solo cd Left To Memory, waarop hij overigens alles zelf speelt en zingt. Alleen in één nummer krijgt hij hulp op de 12-snarige gitaar van zijn makker Christian Savill (Slowdive, Monster Movie). Hij zet van die heerlijk warme met softnoise gevulde gitaarmuren op, die me naast Air Formation doen denken aan die van Slowdive met de gruizige inbreng van een Flying Saucer Attack. In de meer percussie gerichte stukken waarbij de noise iets meer overheerst koerst hij ook richting The Jesus And Mary Chain. Denk daarbij nog aan dat melancholisch lieflijke van de House Of Love, de desolate uitwaaierende gitaarpartijen van Roy Montgomery en het ijle van Sigur Rós, gelardeerd met een vleugje dampende seksmuziek van de Cocteau Twins en je hebt het plaatje aardig compleet. Maar dat plaatje klinkt toch ook als steengoede muziek in je oren zou ik zo zeggen. Mooier hoef ik ook het niet te maken.

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[EDIT: There’s a translation from Emiel in the comments.]

Textura reviews Matt Bartram

There is the great review of the new Matt Bartram album, “Left to Memory” in the latest Textura.
In the liner notes to his second solo release (Arundel, the first, was released in March 2008), Air Formation’s Matt Bartram offers the gentlemanly suggestion: “This album will sound best when played loud so please turn it up.” Subjecting oneself to the album’s forty minutes of shoegaze songcraft, one doesn’t only undergo a thorough excavation of one’s ear canals but also experiences a heady and enveloping rush of guitars, programmed drums, and echo-drenched vocals (the gear listed at Bartram’s MySpace page includes Fender Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Telecaster & Thinline, Fender Jaguar Bass VI Custom, Guild Starfire III, synths, Farfisa).

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