Drawing on influences that range from Bob Dylan and Roger Waters and Philip Glass and Arvo Part, A Whisper in the Noise forge a delicate, ethereal sound across the nine track on ‘To Forget’, their fourth album since forming in 2002.
Melancholia casts a shadow across the hauntingly fragile compositions, yet at the same time ‘To Forget’ remains uplifting by virtue of the sheer beauty of the music. Understated piano and strings provide the instrumental basis of the majority of the songs which distil the introversion of shoegaze into crafted little parcels of cloud-like lightness. However, as the brooding swell of sound that builds like a storm on the horizon that is the opener and title track, A Whisper in the Noise show that understatement doesn’t have to equal timorous or lacking in drama.
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The percussion remains at a respectful distance on ‘Black Shroud’ and rumbles like distant thunder on ‘A Sea Estranging Us’. ‘Every Blade of Grass’ shimmers and sways, while ‘Your Hand’ combines neoclassical strings with an almost operatic vocal delivery from Sonja Larson. The effect is mesmerising.
With songs of rare elegance and emotional depth, A Whisper in the Noise have made an album that will be hard to forget.
A Whisper in the Noise On MySpace
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