Lorna
Static Patterns & Souvenirs

British quartet from Nottingham, Lorna is a band essentially rooted in indie music. The sound is far from homogeneous, and in this album, it is quite evident. The ingredients for quality easy-listening are all there. Catchy melodies, mild but engaging rhythms, whispered and delicate voices that stitch a tapestry as sophisticated as it is high quality.

Listening to the first track, “Understanding Heavy Metal Part I & II”, it feels like driving with the stereo at full blast (or on a train with deafening headphones, whichever you prefer—a travel song, in short). The sweet alternation between the voices of James Allen and Sharon Cohen is very fitting to the tenderness of these initial 5 minutes. A male-female alternation that evokes some beautiful passages from Sons And Daughters (as in “Fight” and “La Lune” for instance). With “The Last Mosquito Fight Of Summer”, the pace changes slightly. The voices are always very delicate, with a simple but effective base, barely accented guitars that stretch out for a full seven minutes—seven minutes that have something in common with “747” by Kent, especially in the instrumental part.
In “Remarkable Things” and “The Swimmer”, the sound of the banjo can be heard, which gives the tracks that country-folk touch that sets them apart from the episodes heard so far. This gives the album variety and diversity that benefits the listener, making it difficult to fall into a sea of boredom and anguish (factors that could arise during the listening, but because of the relaxation and elegance of the sound, not at all due to repetitiveness).
“Be Forever” is a delightful ballad marked by very light strumming and arpeggios on the guitar and is enriched by Sharon's voice, almost a whisper of remarkable delicacy. With your eyes closed, it feels like flying on this melodic, post-rock carpet from across the Channel. It seemed unlikely, yet even man has the possibility to spread wings…
Authoritative post-rock returns in “Illumination”, the last episode of the 11 on the tracklist. An extremely light, relaxing track, stretched over 7 minutes so essentially sparse yet so poignant. Raise your hand if you didn’t think of Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky. Everything flows at a constant pace until the end, with this poignant melody that will accompany us for quite a while. Indeed, it is not easy to free oneself from it.
52 minutes. 57 seconds.

An album to be appreciated in its entirety, with few shadows (the excessive slowness of some episodes comes to mind) and many lights (for instance, the variety, the sweetness of the voices, and the tender soundscapes). Not a masterpiece, but definitely an album to appreciate, as it departs at times from the traditional canons of indie music we are used to lately. It was released in 2005, and it seems that few have noticed its presence on the record store shelves. Well, now you’ll take notice. Or, if you really want to save some money, a quick download will do just fine…