Tags: New Age

Review: Night Songs is the latest record from awakened souls, the Los Angeles based husband and wife duo- James and Cynthia Bernard (marine eyes). In the Spring of 2021, they found a good night's rest was more important than ever to help them through pandemic days of schooling kids from home and balancing work and life. After going on an evening walk, James and Cynthia would write in their bedroom studio and test the evening's songs out for sleep. Even prior to being together, they both loved searching for just the right album to calm their minds at the end of the day. Night Songs is their combined version of a sleepy evening record, exploring slowly evolving loop-based ambient primarily using bass guitar and vocal textures. The tracks which ultimately made it on the album helped them relax enough to go to a place where thoughts fade.

Review: Craven Faults follows up a trio of sold-out EPs starting in 2020 with a second full-length album. It is another record that moves the artist's story onwards with fantastic analogue electronic sounds that take us across the north of Britain, all viewed through 100 years of popular music. Standers again finds him honing his craft across meticulous tracks that paint vivid pictures of everything from Norse influences to piano drones. It is bleak but beautiful experimental music with a storytelling narrative and absorbing undercurrent.