A Broken Consort – Crow Autumn | The Line of Best Fit

A Broken Consort

"Crow Autumn"

17 February 2010, 11:16 | Written by Ash Akhtar

(Albums)

(A Broken Consort)

Released under a pseudonym of instrumental artist, Richard Skelton, it’s perhaps best to let Skelton explain the chequered history of his latest record:“There’s actually two ‘Crow Autumn’ EPs on Sustain-Release [his own label]. ‘Part One’ (A Mercy Kill) was released in late 2007, and ‘Part Two’ (Mountains Ash / The River / Beneath) was released in March 2009. This later release was written and recorded after ‘Landings’. My idea with the Tompkins Square release was to bring these two recordings together, rework them, and then add more material. The resulting album, ‘Crow Autumn’, has the track list : “Day Reveals / A Mercy Kill / Like Rain / Mountains Ash / The River / Beneath / Leaves””. (Source: The Line Of Best Fit).With this 2010 release following on, chronologically at least, from his superb Landings record, Crow Autumn demonstrates how Skelton has gained ground within his own unique sound. Though played from a polycarbonate disc that comes sheathed in a digipak of card, the recorded matter of Crow Autum is (once again) binding, organic and dramatic.As readily discussed amongst writers, describing Skelton’s music is like describing the indescribable to an audience steeled for misunderstanding. Each person, once brought into contact with the hooded and occasionally malevolent sounds that consistently comprise a Skelton piece, will undoubtedly report a highly individual emotive response: one based on sense and emotional memory.With every record dedicated to the memory of late wife, Louise Skelton, it is impossible to deny the sadness shrouding a majority of Skelton’s output and yet, with Crow Autumn, there is something almost uplifting and wondrous contained within. ‘Day Reveals’ opens with the first distinctive major chord I have heard on a Skelton album and, though that theme continues across ‘A Mercy Kill’ and ‘Like Rain’ (which run together as one track); ‘Mountains Ash’ takes on a more sombre, ethereal tone. It is to Skelton’s credit that he is able to conjure such magically different tones by utilising the same instruments (primarily violin, guitar, piano, rising cymbal crashes) and similar constructive techniques.Though created within a deep English landscape, the 2009 recordings take on a more mystic, phrygian calm which in turn give way to images of meditatively thrummed tamburas; prayer; spiritualism and, indeed, mountains. ‘Leaves’ does not so much tie these two periods together as drift between the years, tugging at each with passionate grace.