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CD
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KK 081CD
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Following 2011's The Hearts of Empty (KK 059CD), Liverpool-based band Dakota Suite, led by Chris Hooson in collaboration with David Buxton, are back with another superb album on Karaoke Kalk. While Hearts of Empty was a distinctly jazzy instrumental album, There Is Calm to Be Done takes us further down a path of left-field songwriting and alternative pop. The album was produced together with Quentin Sirjacq, with whom Dakota Suite have already worked in the past, on Valissa (2010) and The Side of Her Inexhaustible Heart (2012). The most striking thing about the Dakota Suite sound is their immense instrumentation. While most songs are driven by the piano, they are adorned with all kinds of instruments to provide an overall timbre of great majesty. The presence of brass parts, woodwind, double bass and a wide array of instruments makes for a special sound. Rhythmically, the drum parts throughout the majority of There Is Calm to Be Done are played with brushes, which takes the edge off and adds a gentleness that only the swooshing of brushes can achieve. The use of lap steel on the opening number "This Is My Way of Saying That I Am Sorry" conjures up a definite country-rock feel. While the album is mainly song-based, there are vast instrumental passages strewn throughout the record and intermingled between songs. "Flat Seat" is one such instrumental tune with a decidedly filmic character; a lilting composition both mesmerizing and intriguing. Much of the album feels as if it could be film music, and each tune conjures a vivid image in the listener's mind to which the music plays the soundtrack. Hooson's vocals are striking both for their singing-style and lyrical content. "Dronning Maud Land," for example, begins with the humorous line "I seem to have grown myself a pair of old man's hands," but the delivery is somber and melancholy. "In the Stillness of This Night" is a powerful ballad that fuses the touching vocals and lyrical style that is so prevalent on the album with an evocative arrangement. "Committing to Uncertainty" is a somewhat darker composition, with the brass and woodwind orchestration building to a powerful crescendo. "Be My Love" stands out as a prime example of singer-songwriting, as it relies solely on acoustic guitar and vocals. It is an unspeakably tender song with a highly fragile yet resolute emotional lure. The penultimate title-track on the album, true to its name, is a delightfully calm tune. The record draws to a close with the minimally-orchestrated "I Miss the Dust," a very delicate instrumental that drifts away like leaves on a breeze. Dakota Suite's music has covered such diverse genres as lo-fi, folk-rock, electronic, ambient, and taken in elements of jazz and modern classical. There Is Calm to Be Done explores the art of songwriting while also venturing beyond, into new fields, to create something new and subtle.
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LP
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KK 081LP
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LP version. Limited to 500 copies, pressed to 180 gram vinyl. Includes printed inner sleeves and a download code. Following 2011's The Hearts of Empty (KK 059CD), Liverpool-based band Dakota Suite, led by Chris Hooson in collaboration with David Buxton, are back with another superb album on Karaoke Kalk. While Hearts of Empty was a distinctly jazzy instrumental album, There Is Calm to Be Done takes us further down a path of left-field songwriting and alternative pop. The album was produced together with Quentin Sirjacq, with whom Dakota Suite have already worked in the past, on Valissa (2010) and The Side of Her Inexhaustible Heart (2012). The most striking thing about the Dakota Suite sound is their immense instrumentation. While most songs are driven by the piano, they are adorned with all kinds of instruments to provide an overall timbre of great majesty. The presence of brass parts, woodwind, double bass and a wide array of instruments makes for a special sound. Rhythmically, the drum parts throughout the majority of There Is Calm to Be Done are played with brushes, which takes the edge off and adds a gentleness that only the swooshing of brushes can achieve. The use of lap steel on the opening number "This Is My Way of Saying That I Am Sorry" conjures up a definite country-rock feel. While the album is mainly song-based, there are vast instrumental passages strewn throughout the record and intermingled between songs. "Flat Seat" is one such instrumental tune with a decidedly filmic character; a lilting composition both mesmerizing and intriguing. Much of the album feels as if it could be film music, and each tune conjures a vivid image in the listener's mind to which the music plays the soundtrack. Hooson's vocals are striking both for their singing-style and lyrical content. "Dronning Maud Land," for example, begins with the humorous line "I seem to have grown myself a pair of old man's hands," but the delivery is somber and melancholy. "In the Stillness of This Night" is a powerful ballad that fuses the touching vocals and lyrical style that is so prevalent on the album with an evocative arrangement. "Committing to Uncertainty" is a somewhat darker composition, with the brass and woodwind orchestration building to a powerful crescendo. "Be My Love" stands out as a prime example of singer-songwriting, as it relies solely on acoustic guitar and vocals. It is an unspeakably tender song with a highly fragile yet resolute emotional lure. The penultimate title-track on the album, true to its name, is a delightfully calm tune. The record draws to a close with the minimally-orchestrated "I Miss the Dust," a very delicate instrumental that drifts away like leaves on a breeze. Dakota Suite's music has covered such diverse genres as lo-fi, folk-rock, electronic, ambient, and taken in elements of jazz and modern classical. There Is Calm to Be Done explores the art of songwriting while also venturing beyond, into new fields, to create something new and subtle.
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2CD
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GR 730CD
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"Life is only in a personality and every personality is based on dark ground, but this ground must be knowledge." --J.W.F Shelling
"All my records are about my life with Johanna, my recognition that I am so very lost without her, the knowledge that she sustains and nurtures me. I have made each song for her from the start. I set out to write songs to celebrate who she is -- more than I have ever done before, I wanted to recognize that she makes me whole, that even though I have often pushed her away and caused her almost unbearable emotional pain due to my inability to see a way through this life, the trial and struggles of not feeling like I belong in it, feeling the world touches me too hard -- and through all this, she will not let me go. Meeting Quentin in November 2009 was like meeting someone cut from the same tree. When I talked to Quentin about the way the world is, he seemed to have examples of his own that matched mine, the way he played piano showed me he stood up to his ankles in the same muddy water as myself. I sent Quentin sketches on guitar and piano of these pieces and over many months he worked to arrange the pieces as you hear them now. These pieces took hundreds of hours of fine tuning and listening to unbelievably small sections and examining them for truth. The idea was not to play if we didn't have to. I have always been inspired by two musical icons, Arvo Pärt and Bill Evans, and if they have taught me anything, it's that you MUST not play anything if it isn't required. This music is all about the truth, the truth of who she is, the truth about what sustains me. The quiet places, the moments and minutes that make up who she is." --Chris Hooson
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2LP
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GR 730LP
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Gatefold 2LP version on 180 gram vinyl. "Life is only in a personality and every personality is based on dark ground, but this ground must be knowledge." --J.W.F Shelling
"All my records are about my life with Johanna, my recognition that I am so very lost without her, the knowledge that she sustains and nurtures me. I have made each song for her from the start. I set out to write songs to celebrate who she is -- more than I have ever done before, I wanted to recognize that she makes me whole, that even though I have often pushed her away and caused her almost unbearable emotional pain due to my inability to see a way through this life, the trial and struggles of not feeling like I belong in it, feeling the world touches me too hard -- and through all this, she will not let me go. Meeting Quentin in November 2009 was like meeting someone cut from the same tree. When I talked to Quentin about the way the world is, he seemed to have examples of his own that matched mine, the way he played piano showed me he stood up to his ankles in the same muddy water as myself. I sent Quentin sketches on guitar and piano of these pieces and over many months he worked to arrange the pieces as you hear them now. These pieces took hundreds of hours of fine tuning and listening to unbelievably small sections and examining them for truth. The idea was not to play if we didn't have to. I have always been inspired by two musical icons, Arvo Pärt and Bill Evans, and if they have taught me anything, it's that you MUST not play anything if it isn't required. This music is all about the truth, the truth of who she is, the truth about what sustains me. The quiet places, the moments and minutes that make up who she is." --Chris Hooson
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