Between darkness and wonder, the Manchester duo resurfaces in the crowded music market, baring themselves with sensuality and sweetness. The sound, although not lacking the usual electronic bursts, has become more essential and, if possible, even more enveloping.
Thus, to the usual fluttering and electronic blips is often added a whole string section, occasionally guided by a certain David Campbell, the orchestrator of Sea Change and Beck’s father.
The dance opens with the schizophrenia of Darkness, exemplary in combining mad electronic beats and instrumental cut-ups. Stronger presents itself, instead, more pop in essence and introduces us to the realm of lunar ballads that make up most of this third release by Andy Barlow and Lou Robinson. Till the Clouds Clear is proof of this, living in a pastoral air that promptly crumbles in the crescendo of the chorus.
During the succession of Between the Darkness and Wonder, one gets literally swept away by a spatial current that authorizes a mental journey, a purifying abandonment.
Listen to Learn and the splendid finale Hearts and flowers. Pure magic and imaginative catharsis for damned souls.