£8.00
www.myspace.com/glissando
Tracklisting:
1. We Are Depleting
2. With a Kiss and a Tear
3. Floods
4. White Silence and the Fragile Reality
5. Goodbye Red Rose! This Was Not For You
6. Like Everything You See
7. Always the Storm
8. Grekken
9. Our Flags Wave and Our Arms Are Around Another’s Shoulders
‘With Our Arms Wide Open We March Towards the Burning Sea’ is probably best listened to at night, I’m not trying to rule your life or anything – just a friendly nudge in the right direction.
It has a dark, gentle heartbeat that opens up an atmosphere lost and bleak but through Elly May Irving's vocal there is always a sense of wonder, a thought that something otherworldly is occurring.
There is an ambience to the record that throws it into the vein of some of the Kranky labels releases but it’s more orchestral than that, there’s more melody and a lyrical content that just seems to suck you in and hold you close. The closing lines of ‘Floods’ in which Elly May, Richard Knox and Tom Morris (Her Name Is Calla) are all chanting “You were on fire as they ran to hold the flames, we did not see, so the water never came” is an album highlight, backed by Angharad Cooper’s (Held By Hands) soaring violin it has a touch of the likes of Efterklang to it before fading into a shimmering drone section to finish.
Glissando’s previous comparisons have been to such visionaries as Low and Rachel’s, the later is more apparent in ‘Always the Storm’ which is almost classically based in its mood and ambience. As the record comes to a close ‘Grekken’ is another highlight as it’s dark tones and an ending of “You made me kill myself” wrap around you. The added vocal of iLiKETRAiNS’ Dave Martin serves a haunting purpose and it throws you into an almost dream-like state before the album closer of ‘Our Flags Wave and Our Arms Are Around Another’s Shoulder’s’ lulls you back into that comfortable place again that you know so well.
The fact that Glissando have pulled together to make a full-length record is important enough but hopefully creating something as beautiful and as endearing as this will mean just that little bit more.