Post Description

Bleak but compelling desert tomb-stone Americana engraved with whimsical European folk-noir.

OK, let’s get the ‘Is-that-really-what-they’re-called?’ reaction out of the way, given that a band name as strikingly odd as Son of the Velvet Rat feels like an open invitation for cheesy puns.  But never fear, after this paragraph, there won’t be even the faintest squeak of a rodent-related joke, and that’s partly because ‘Solitary Company’ is way too laden down with atmospheric melancholy and existential angst of the folk-noir variety to allow itself more than a very occasional flash of humour. 

“Raindrops on the windowpane I hope they never dry” is one typically ‘upbeat’ observation on ‘Solitary Company’ the latest offering from  Georg Altziebler and Heike Binder, the Austrian duo who comprise SOTVR and who have been specialists in wry,  mournful music ever since they settled in one of California’s alternative culture capitals, Joshua Tree in the Mojave desert, way back in 2006.

Appropriately enough given the blend of backgrounds, ‘Solitary Company’, SOTVR’s ninth album, occupies a strange, but mostly captivating, intersection between gloomy, gloopy, semi-acoustic old-time European folk music and cabaret and the more psychedelic, surreal side of Americana.  This is no lo-fi homespun effort, either: there are around two dozen credited musicians for the album’s ten tracks, with violinist Bob Furgo, who played on the later Leonard Cohen albums, a notable contributor.   Binder and Altziebler have ten different kinds of instrument and singing credits between them, too.

Tracks:  
1. Alicia (4:43)
2. Solitary Company (6:08)
3. Stardust (3:07)
4. When the Lights Go Down (5:16)
5. Beautiful Disarray (3:16)
6. 11 & 9 (4:28)
7. The Waterlily & the Dragonfly (2:24)
8. The Only Child (4:26)
9. The Ferris Wheel (3:52)
10. Remember Me (4:41)

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg2Jak9eFJE