Lewis & Clarke’s debut album is something of an oddity. It sounds completely out of tune with our times. It’s music of simplistic splendor and of a time, long ago, before the hustle and bustle of the 21st Century encroached on our lives. There’s a whole host of instruments on here from the usual guitar and strings to the more exotic harp and horns. Bringing to mind a less grandiose Joanna Newsom, the beauty here is in this simplistic and, seemingly, honest approach to song writing.

Blasts of Holy Birth begins with the gentle folk instrumental of Secret of the Garden Flower with it’s twisted strings and sinister noises that sound like the soundtrack to a troubled walk through a dark forest. This lightens up as it blends into the title track, a gentle acoustic guitar picks up as the dark soundtrack flows away. The lyrics seem to be dealing with the blurring of reality and dream, maybe through the use of illegitimate, or otherwise, drugs. Lou Rogai’s vocals are a dreamy and gentle instrument in themselves, perfectly complementing the floating sounds around which it flows. The quite lovely Comfort Inn is an eight minute epic which deals with the reasons why the protagonist of the song should see his beloved before she leaves. These reasons go from the mundane to the magnificent; “She’s opened you up you see”. The music skips and rolls around the words from the intricately picked guitars to the gently brushed drums and droning strings. Not content with that epic, Before It Breaks You hits the ten minute mark, but these songs never feel long. The music has a central theme but other ideas break out from this and meander through it, drawing you in with different threads. Here the gentle tinkle of piano compliments the guitars and harp, spiriting the song through it’s core. Black Doves twists the mix, blending instruments that sound as if they’ve come from the East, sitar sounds and ethnic beats infusing to increase the tempo.

Whilst this might not be as adventurous or as challenging as, say, Six Organs Of Admittance who also play this twisted and alternative folk music, this is a joy to listen to. The songs create impressive scenes of wonder that draw you in and transport you into another world that’s full of flowing streams of music entwining with lyrics and stories of wonder.
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Links
Lewis & Clarke [official site] [myspace]
La Societe Expeditionnaire [official site]