Variant Sea - Sinking As The Light
Info: Dublin pair Luke Duffy (piano) and Shell Dooley (guitar) have just released their debut E.P., Season of Mists, this week as post-rock and ambient group, Variant Sea. At the weekend I reviewed their first single from the release, 'River Sallows', an achingly beautiful piece of music, so I was delighted to not have to wait more than a few days to let the rest of the tracks drift into my ears.
Following the first single on the E.P. comes 'Sinking As A Light' (above), atmospherics are at full flow here, the piano notes are like large yet welcome raindrops, this feeling may be brought on by the E.P.'s title and album artwork subconsciously. Stylistically it struck me like a half-way meeting point between Sigur Rós and Mogwai, and I do try to avoid comparisons with the former as sometimes it feels like they have become a genre in themselves, but here, I think it's appropriate.
'Hours By Hours' provides Variant Sea with more scope to express and deliver their sound due to its length. Like the rest of the tracks, it is hard not to succumb to the graceful and elegant musicianship of Duffy and Dooley on this one, your abandonment as a listener to the music strives to keep up with the same sense of feeling they must have put into the composition. By the time you've finished listening to 'Gathering Swallows', and managed to catch your emotions, you see Season of Mists as a whole rather than four individual tracks. That's not to say that they are indistinguishable, there are subtle yet noticeable differences, from restrained to dramatic, and that's what makes this set of songs so special, you have been lifted through moods and feelings by Variant Sea and you didn't even know it, until the second listen, or was it the third or fourth...
Like / Listen & Follow:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/variantsea/
Bandcamp: http://variantsea.bandcamp.com/releases
