Sub-zero songwriting that drifts in glacial movements…Cheval Sombre is a difficult artist to pin down.
New album ‘Time Waits For No One’ is his first solo release in over eight years, and it finds the songwriter once more embarking on a subtle yet stubborn period of evolution.
Produced by Sonic Boom, the new record has folk tones, while also existing in a kind of sub-zero fug, its glacial movements recalling some of Spiritualized’s narcotic hymns.
Taken from the incoming record, new song ‘Curtain Grove’ has a chilling sense of beauty, its pensive introspective carrying an opaque psychedelia.
“Things come to a close, the night comes on, curtains will be drawn, a moment of reflection before retiring,” he comments. “There is a lucid moment just before sleep, where things are clear as glass, and ‘Curtain Grove’ is just that – the past orchestrated with what’s to come, crystallized in sweeps of strings, memories of innocence echoing.”
The tipping point between sleep and the waking hours, ‘Curtain Grove’ comes equipped with a remarkable video, which Clash is able to bring you before anyone else.
Cheval Sombre tells us…
‘Curtain Grove’ grew out of a strangely productive, fragile month. I was down with pneumonia but there was a piano in the house – on which all kinds of melodies came to me – during those silent afternoons, when everything was still. I then had to translate all to guitar, which took some patience and learning.
But after this, it was astonishing – Gillian Rivers brought sweeping, orchestral strings, Pete got hold and laced it with elegant melody, Britta whispered these elusive, lovely backing vocals.
‘Curtain Grove’ reminds me that much beauty can still come together despite difficult days. Innerstrings’ stirring video gracefully handles the play between darkness and light that we each of us inevitably encounter – in which wonder ultimately prevails.
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Luz Gallardo
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