There is a certain level of intimacy involved whenever you listen to an album crafted within the cozy confines of the musician’s bedroom. While the quality of the end results certainly varies, due to both the talent and production level of those involved, you can’t help but feel a bit closer to the songs themselves simply because in most cases the walls between the artist and the listener have been stripped away entirely. In the case of Mauro Remiddi, the sole mastermind behind Porcelain Raft‘s stirring debut, Strange Weekend, his spiralling songs succeed because they are both intensely personal but also quite epic and grandiose, rising majestically out of the various bedrooms and basements in which they were created for the whole world to hear. And hopefully the world is listening, because this record is quite lovely.

The textured album opens with the relaxed beauty of ‘Drifting In And Out,’ as Remiddi (who is a former member of Sunny Day Sets Fire) is able to capture the full attention of his listeners even while he suggests that they allow their focus to fade a bit. It’s all rather ethereal and lush, as the hypnotic, stylish melody does indeed carry you away and back again. The strong start continues with the plaintive ‘Shapeless & Gone’, which is led by a watery acoustic guitar riff, and comes across sounding like an expansive, drug-addled early b-side by The Verve.

Things get decidedly downtempo on ‘Is It Too Deep For You?’, another mesmerizing track which further proves that Remiddi definitely has some quality equipment at his disposal. The fact that he is able to produce these pristine, soaring numbers is a testament to not only his boundless creativity but also to the simple fact that he knows exactly what he’s doing. Remiddi is clearly not just twisting knobs and pressing buttons in the dark here, he’s crafted something far more grand and accomplished than most of his “chillwave” cohorts; and the stately, lavish sounds featured on Strange Weekend should easily distance Porcelain Raft from those tiresome comparisons and indolent genre classifications.

The emotional centerpiece of the record is ‘Backwords’, a gorgeous, melancholy number full of both regret and promise, as Remiddi’s wistful vocals ride gracefully over a gradually swelling beat. It’s a stunning, poignant track that never sounds cloying or overly sentimental as Remiddi hits all the tender notes right. After such a glorious but sombre number, the album picks back up with the buoyant, beat-driven urgency of ‘Unless You Speak From Your Heart’. But the record does begin to suffer a bit during its stolid second half, as both ‘The End Of Silence’, and ‘Picture’ stray too close to the standard, mundane pop construction that the rest of the record easily distances itself from.

But things get sorted quickly on the experimental (but far too brief) ‘If You Have A Wish,’ and the heartfelt closer ‘The Way In’, which elegantly brings the album to an end. Mauro Remiddi certainly lets the listener in to share some of his innermost thoughts and fears on Strange Weekend, and the impassioned, stylish results featured throughout this debut record should easily take Porcelain Raft from a heady bedroom project to a worldwide audience in no time at all.