It’s like waiting for a bus… you hang around for ages, and then along come several. Well, in this case the waiting has been for the mail from England, which finally delivered two very special CDs with one thing in common: Steven Wilson.
In the USA, Steven Wilson is best known as the leader of Porcupine Tree, the progressive and increasingly heavy rock band that began with some home produced tracks with a fictitious back-story and has now become a major force, with albums such as The Sky Moves Sideways, Signify and In Absentia. But in Europe, he was always better known for a variety of collaborations with different artists using different names. Which leads us to today’s crop.
First up is Blackfield, a new project by Steven and Aviv Geffen. The songs are simple, short, direct, and beautiful; the sound is that of Lightbulb Sun-era Porcupine Tree, with full, sensual arrangements. Deeply satisfying. The album is short – ten songs, just over 30 minutes – and there’s a bonus CD with two new tracks plus a live version of Cloudy Now and an MPEG video of the title track.
The second album is Speak by No-Man. Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson have been No-Man since the late 1980s, and this material first appeared on cassette back in 1989, long before they had a recording contract or a sense of where they were going! Although unmistakably by the same artists who gave us the rich soundscapes and tone poems of Flower Mouth and Returning Jesus, Speak is more eclectic, less structured. Fragments of melodies, rhythms, and “found sounds” of indefinite provenance sweep in and disappear as if dissipated by a sudden breeze, while Tim’s quietly insistent words pull you in. I have all of No-Man‘s later work; it’s good to be able to hear their roots.
Blackfield has been released in the USA, but No-Man recordings are hard to find. The best source is Burning Shed Records in England.