We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Answering Smile

by Adrian Lane

/
1.
2.
3.
Isotherm 04:31
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

about

An album of acoustic based pieces; instruments used include alto and baritone bowed psaltery, bowed guitar, violin, zither and mandolin.

Reviews:
A Closer Listen: "Adrian Lane‘s second album for Poland’s Preserved Sound inspires a sense of admiration. The music is as thick as that of a small orchestra, yet Lane plays all of the instruments himself: bowed psaltery, mandolin, zither, violin, acoustic guitar and more. Guess who painted the cover?

As one might expect from the above array, the album will appear to fans of The Cloisters and Richard Skelton. A madrigal presence is apparent throughout, as are a stately elegance and a fluid reverence. It’s easy to be too reverent, but Lane sidesteps the potential problem with contemporary arrangements. “Isotherm” may include ancient tones, but winks at modern drones.

The title inspires thoughts of welcome flirtation: a warm response to a soft approach. This overriding theme is reflected in the album’s romantic feeling. With track titles such as “The Unopened Letter” and “But Lingered a Moment”, Lane reignites a tradition of courtship that seems all but absent in the current age. Writing letters, allowing suggestion to replace display: these are the marks of a patient love. And The Answering Smile is a patient album, content to make a solid impression, then retreat to the safety of the carriage. As the longest track (albeit only five minutes), “But Lingered a Moment” is also the most immediate, allowing the strings a direct route to the center of the song while walking the percussion on a short leash.

Length is an important consideration in these tracks, six of which fall into the two-minute range. These shorter tracks represent the glance on the street, the jolt of synergy, the answering smile. By allowing the tracks to make small impressions, Lane serves his subject well. Yet in the end, this is less a work of component parts than it is of a whole. On the surface, one might ask for more development in the shorter pieces, but after digesting the whole, one realizes that the fulfillment of certain tracks lies in other tracks. The artist encourages the pieces to flow into each other like wild emotions, knowing no boundaries, holding onto every scrap of encouragement." (Richard Allen)


Music Won't Save You: "Se il precedente “Lights Are Very Deceptive At Night” era un lavoro incentrato su sospensioni e fragili interstizi tra note pianistiche, il nuovo “The Answering Smile” vede Adrian Lane espandere la sua ricerca sonora a un’ambiziosa pluralità di strumenti. Ambiziosa innanzitutto per la particolare formazione dell’ensemble unipersonale del compositore inglese, che da solo suona una serie di strumenti a corda, il principale dei quali è il salterio.

Utilizzandolo sia nella versione alto che baritono, entrambe suonate con l’archetto, Lane definisce nettamente l’impronta sonora del lavoro, le cui quattordici concise tracce appaiono fin dall’inizio avvolte in un bozzolo atemporale intriso di misticismo.
Giocando sulla persistenza e sull’elongazione digitale delle frequenze prodotte dal salterio – al quale si affiancano comunque chitarra, mandolino, zither, violino e percussioni – Lane produce un linguaggio costituito parimenti da arabeschi dai distanti richiami esotici e da spunti di austera sacralità.

La sostanziale uniformità compositiva dei brani, soprattutto nella prima parte del lavoro, non disperde il contenuto suggestivo degli arcani bozzetti, che Lane tratteggia con tocco lieve, vibrante, rapito. Quando poi le note sono lasciate stillare senza manipolazioni esecutive (“Other In Innocent Surprise”), ovvero avvinte in stridori inquieti e palpitanti (“When The Bow Breaks”, “We First Learned Of Your Peril”), si dischiudono mondi immaginari popolati da una tensione latente, espressa da Adrian Lane in un formato elettro-acustico composito, evocativo e senz’altro molto particolare."

Linus Records: "2013年作の前作に続いてPreserved Soundからリリースされた、UKのAdrian Laneのフルアルバム。
微妙に揺れながら妖しく浮遊する、弓で弾いたギターのドローン・サウンド〜ヴァイオリンのドローンや、たおやかなアコギのアルペジオ、淡々とノスタルジックなフレーズを奏でるマンドリン〜ツィターなどの弦楽器のサウンドを組み合わせた、ポスト・クラシカル〜ドローン〜アコースティック・インスト。前作はピアノを中心とした作品でしたが今作はピアノは取り入れず、弦楽器を中心に仄かな浮遊感のある穏やかなムードと、Godspeed You! Black Emperor〜Constellationのアーティストあたりにも通じる厳かでもの悲し気なムードが入り混じる、室内楽ポスト・ロックとドローン〜アコースティック・サウンドなどがミックスされたようなサウンドを聴かせています。全14曲46分収録。盤はCD-Rで限定100枚でのリリースです."

credits

released April 4, 2014

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Adrian Lane UK

Visual artist, and musician. Adrian Lane creates instrumental neo-classical, ambient music and abstract textural mixed media paintings, many of his paintings can be found on the cover of his albums.

contact / help

Contact Adrian Lane

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Adrian Lane, you may also like: