In order to comment an album like Northumbria‘s one, it’s good to start from an aspect too often underestimated like the cover. The music of the Canadian duo, active with this moniker since 2011, fits perfectly with the image that sends us back to desolate expanses dominated by a leaden sky that, depending on the mood with which it is observed, seems to promise a torrential rain or portend a sudden brightening. A situation then harbinger of any evolution, just like the sound of Northumbria, threatening at times but also capable of melodically dissolve on coordinates almost frippiane (The Ocean Calls Us Home). The ambient drone of Northumbria has, in fact, the great merit of not representing a series of sounds put together just to saturate the expected minutes, but it represents instead a constant flow that outlines landscapes of mysterious worlds, in which the apparent serenity emanating from the sound can leave space shortly after to a soft sense of unease. With Bring Down The Sky, Jim Field and Dorian Williamson take this musical genre to a higher level than what usually happens (with the contribution of “guru” James Plotkin in the recording phase) and the almost three quarters of an hour along which the work develops flows fluidly without boring. Music for the soul and for the mind.

2014 – ConSouling Sounds