After that great Ian Middleton LP (Well of Sorrows) and a solo LP, Teal, Tom James Scott and his Skire label returns with Calluna, a collaboration between TJS and Andrew Chalk. These two are the duo of all duos if you’re the type of listener that takes away points for every decibel. Calluna is spare and achingly plotted like the veins in your foot, tiny tributaries running into and feeding off one another. It’s like a camera is panning across a snowy public park in an indie film after a titular character has died; the mood is icy yet hopeful, as if the deep freeze of grief can only last for so long before the thaw melts it. Scott’s piano is the crux, while Chalk whirls up softer-than-soft tone poems that sooth and whisper across the compositions like a forbidden secret. These two have teamed up before and their rapport is apparent. If one is creating gaps you can be sure the other is filling them, Calluna retaining interest more than a lot of the ambient LPs you’ve been futilely trying to lose yourself in. Mastered at 45 RPMs for ultimate effect, a must if you tilt on the Kranky axis or just like to float in the memories your mind tunes into when it’s as free as it can be.
More about: Andrew Chalk & Tom James Scott
