Held By Trees - Solace.

Held By Trees

Solace

(Tweed Jacket Music)

7.5/10

By Paul Davies

There's a fine network of interconnecting craft at the root of this entrancing album that blossoms forth across its eight instrumental musical meditations. With contributions by some of the most respected musicians in the rock fraternity, Solace is a new instrumental project helmed by David Joseph that includes musicians who played on Talk Talk and Mark Hollis' albums plus notable guitarists Tim Renwick and David Knopfler. Interestingly, there's an unexpected lo-fi ambient element to the compositions, such as on An Approach, whose occasional opaqueness may take some listeners a moment or three to adjust to given the premier musicians involved. Elsewhere, the Pink Floyd inspirations to be found on The Tree Of Life, with horns alloyed to this spontaneous movement of music, is breath-taking. There is also a modern free-form jazzy feel as exhibited on Mysterium and The New Earth that experiments with the delights of instruments finding their relationships with each other in a remarkable and refined manner.

Solace was created using a similar approach employed on Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock recordings, in which David Joseph invited musicians to improvise over his backing track musings. The results are viscerally varied yet cerebrally provoking. It’s a grower!