Caught in the Wake Forever & The Sly & Unseen - Summer Passes / Evidence of Fractures (2014)

Rural Colours have been releasing low key yet always aesthetically pleasing releases for four years. Their latest is a split release between experimental drone duo The Sly and Unseen and ambient lo-fi artist Caught In The Wake Forever. Summer Passes, the four tracks by The Sly and Unseen are all instrumental, incorporating a variety of instruments from glockenspiel via cello to birdsong backed by an Indian shruti box. Seeking Warmth In Our Cold Climes is bright and uplifting, Slumming It Here With Our Common Pigeons is darker with the cor anglaise evoking French movies. The overall effect is stark and moody.

Caught In The Wake Forever, aka Fraser McGowan has hit upon a creative roll. Evidence Of Fractures, the five tracks included here follow swiftly, and are cast in a similar mould, after his most recent album My Family Goes On Without Me. After the instrumental mood setter To Wild Flowers Forgotten, the downbeat drift of The Passing features the first voice heard on this album, McGowan’s vocal. More graceful melancholy follows in the shape of Dawn’s Own Fallow before the darkness lifts – momentarily – on the shimmering Erskine’s Greatest, probably the most accessible track here. An unhurried blend of what sounds like heavily treated guitar, keyboards and percussion, as a regretful sounding McGowan intones “it’s not your fault”. Finally, Churches Will Follow ends the set with a forbidding air of finality.