Having
now reviewed over 60 albums, there are times when you settle to listen
to an album and it literally takes your breath away. I had never heard
of Johannes Luley, but a little research told me he was one of the
founders of the band, Moth Vellum, who released an album back in 2008,
and I was aware of them. He has taken a while to release a solo album,
but the wait has certainly been worth it. The album, released earlier
this year is called Tales From Sheepfather’s Grove and is a stunning piece of work.
Tales From Sheepfather’s Grove
is an album comprising 8 tracks with an overall running time of around
43 minutes. The longest track, track 7 , “Atheos Spiritualis” is just
under the 10 minute mark, (9:50), and the shortest track, which is track
3, running for 3:17 minutes is called “Moments.”
There
have been a few instances in the reviews I have completed where there
is genuine difficulty in picking out highlights, simply due to the fact
that the entire album is a highlight. I could wax lyrical about each and
every track on the album, but I will limit my outpouring to the
following three tracks, and they are, “Stab The Sea,” which is the
opening track, “Moments,” track 3 and the final track, “Voya,” all three
of which have already featured on my radio show.
The
opening track, “Stab The Sea” (7:29), just takes hold of you when it
starts and you are transported away into a world of your own
imagination. This track builds very slowly with simple synthesizer
sounds setting the scene, and then a slight increase in the intensity
sets in around 1:30 minutes, before seeming to fade slowly away into the
distance. At the 2:30 minute mark, there is a superb acoustic guitar
motif backed with hand percussion which continues the relaxed feel of
the track, before there is some subdued vocalization in the background
which is then supplemented by stunning synthesizer riffs. This continues
along with the breathy vocals appearing as the whole track merges into a
wonderful soundscape. The appearance of some female vocalization
changes the overall feel slightly before the music slides back into
relax mode and before you are aware of it, the 7+ minutes have ended.
This is a superb opening track which sets up the rest of the album
perfectly.
“Moments”
(3:17) the third track on the album, and the shortest, starts with a
harpsichord sounding motif with the clear almost ethereal vocals
provided by Johannes. The sound is very reminiscent of Jon Anderson,
Yes, Mike Oldfield and even Vangelis, as the song tempo changes but
maintains that “hook.” The overall sound makes you smile and your
imagination will strain to run wild again. Similarly with the previous
track comment, the ending seems to come just too soon.
The final track on the album, Tales From Sheepfather’s Grove,
is “Voya” (3:53) and starts in a very melancholic reflective manner
with strumming guitars and a synthesizer passage. Gentle percussion
moves the track along before the voice of Johannes comes in with relaxed
vocals, which dovetail perfectly with the mood of the music. What has
been used very sparingly, and to great effect in places throughout the
album, is the electric guitar of Johannes, but in this track around the
1:40 minute point, he lets the guitar take wings and soar. This
certainly allows your imagination to shift up a gear again, before the
superb vocals return and the track runs its course.
Johannes
has taken a bold step by moving away from a conventional drum kit,
replacing that type of percussion with all sorts of hand percussion
instruments which gives the music more of a feeling. What he
successfully does is to weave together all the instruments to produce an
amazing aural sensation which allows the listener to simply “go with
the flow.” Although I would class this as progressive rock, and that
label of course, has so many meanings in 2013, there is no denying that
Johannes has made full use of classical, ambient, world and folk
genres to produce a very powerful sound. Once the album was finished, I
immediately restarted it and listened to the whole experience again.
I
mentioned the sort of influences that seem to come through as you
progress through the album, namely the more ethereal sounds of Yes, Jon
Anderson, Vangelis and Mike Oldfield, but at no point do you feel you
have heard this before. All artists can imitate, but the real skill lies
in taking influences and molding them into something unique and
Johannes Luley has done exactly that with Tales From Sheepfather’s Grove.
Tales From Sheepfarmer’s Grove
certainly gets a “One to Buy” sticker prominently on the front of the
cover and also, down on the left hand side of the cover, a “The
Experience Will Last Forever” strip. My advice is to buy the album,
settle down in a comfortable chair, fire the system up and let your mind
get some exercise.
5/5 STARS
Key Tracks: Stab The Sea, Moments, Voya
Jim “The Ancient One” Lawson-MuzikReviews.com Staff
August 7, 2013
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