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Congleton Chronicle

This is an intriguing album. The music is primarily piano (Daniel Schlosberg) and vocals (Kimberly Jones, Ryan De Ryke, Ryan Townsend Strand), and it leans towards the more challenging end of the vocal repertoire—semi-operatic at the start, but softening into something more intimate and front-room in feel by the end. What lifts it is the warmth of the sound and the fact that the lyrics, all sung in English, tell engrossing stories.

In “Dark Clouds Above”, a Russian soldier bids farewell to his partner before heading off to war—a prolonged process: “Dark clouds above, thin ice below / Three days, my love, ’til I go.” The next section follows a German soldier en route to the front, reflecting on the shared experience: “Maybe there’s a Russian soldier / On his train, like I’m on mine.”

Naturally, they meet. The Russian sings: “I could no more kill you than my own father, brother.” (If only.) Baritone Ryan De Ryke features prominently thereafter.

“Myths and Accidents” opens with a dramatic account of a mundane day: “Today went by like any other day / I wrote a little, read a little / I developed a headache… I spent an hour in the bath.” Then comes the bleak reflection: “The average day of a disconnected soul”—the kind of day when, he wonders grimly, “if it isn’t time to have an accident while shaving.”

Next is “Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”, which begins prosaically but evolves into a fairy tale, followed by the tale of Eurydice and Orpheus (also memorably told by Nick Cave).

The “All Must End” cycle begins with “Birth” (“Birth timidly crossing the brink of eternity”) and concludes with “Pontoocuce”, which declares “All dies!”—though it later gestures towards rebirth and the cycle of life: “The grass may die, but in spring rain…”

The final work, “Three Sandburg Songs”, opens with “Killers”—perhaps the most disturbing lyrics of the set: “Soft as a man with a dead child speaks / Hard as a man in handcuffs.” It reflects on the 16 million dead in WWI.

“Bones” takes a more humorous look at death: “Sling me under the sea / Pack me down in the salt and wet / No farmer’s plow shall touch my bones / No Hamlet hold my jaws and speak.”

Doug Lofstrom, a bassist and composer based in the Chicago area, has a website featuring a wide selection of his music.