This new EP, entitled Lights, is a continuation of the sound we have come to associate with Mt Judge. White creates an otherworldly ambience, influenced by acts such as Emeralds and Stars of the Lid. The music is also complimented by several field recordings which White made himself on a trip to Iceland, taken at Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik, and around Mt. Akrafjall, which I believe is just across the bay. Iceland has a reputation for being natural and ethereal and Lights does little to correct this, channelling the warm beauty of bands like Sigur Rós to create gorgeous, breathing soundscapes. Perfect for putting on your headphones and watching the world go by.

Lights is available on cassette tape or as a pay-what-you want download from the Mt. Judge bandcamp page.

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The album sees the band, husband and wife duo Keith Freund and Linda Lejsovka, continue their trademark blend of highly detailed, intelligent sound design and intimate pop sensibilities. Lejsovka was pregnant with the couple’s first child during the writing and recording of the album, a situation which undoubtedly had an effect on their creative process and therefore the end result. But this isn’t simply a musical account of pregnancy or early parenthood, as Freund says in the brief interview on the MIE website:

It’s definitely not an album about a baby or becoming parents, I don’t think we know how to or want to fit that into this project, but instead ended up being a portrait of the two of us clinging to each other throughout a tumultuous, difficult, and exciting time of change. Life got rather chaotic and messy and I can’t really tell you ‘this is what the album is trying to do’, and instead probably need to just say ‘this is what happened’.

The chaos and tension that Freund describes is certainly apparent on the record, albeit in short bursts. The opening of ‘The Very End, Again’ is a furore of harsh noise and sputtering feedback, the polar opposite to the warm and hazy ambience of the majority of the album. However there are other, more subtle examples of the blend of nerves and excitement. In ‘Profile of a Woman in Silk Hood’ the mood changes across the song, just as moods and feelings change across challenging times. The song swings between steady beats that bring to mind action, purpose, and ethereal calm, punctuated by fluttering elecronics that act as the musical equivalent of butterflies in the stomach, probing feelings that threaten to derail convictions of comfort.

The whole album can be viewed this way, with the default ambience set somewhere near serenity and other sonic emotions constantly appearing or fading. The result is a near perfect picture of the ephemerality of human emotion, where extreme pain or joy or fear or confusion are stacatto drops in space, a void that is not at all unpleasant. Even in the most emotional of hours the feelings eventually pale and a sense of placid reflection settles. It is this sense, tinged with love and sadness and empathy, that helps us carry on, to be okay.

Some of the lyrical themes on Love At Dusk reminded me strongly of the band’s debut album (The United Colours of Trouble Books), for example on ‘Fake Fern Shadows’ Lejsovka sings:

“I just need, simple things.
Clean socks, warm bed,
An extra comet to destroy this shitty planet”

And on ‘The Very End, Again’, Freund this time:

“I was cleaning up the dishes
my friend was saying something about her needs
Then the sun exploded burning soil and bone and leaving our
souls to drift like dandelion seeds.”

Both of these lines, to me at least, are reminiscent of the opening lines of ‘For All Our Dead Friends’ (from their debut), where Freund rather charmingly describes a post-apocalyptic landscape and lists several potential causes. Again this comes back to the idea transient feelings, where the dramatic event (in this case the apocalyptic event) is followed by something much less urgent, something more manageable. ‘Fake Fern Shadows’ in effect shows life before the event, again something much simpler and kinder. The event becomes a fleeting violence that felt like the end of the world but soon passed.

So overall, if you are already a fan of Trouble Books then you should buy this album, if you have never heard of Trouble Books but are a fan of experimental ambient pop music (think The Microphones or Mount Eerie meet Emeralds) then you should buy this album. If you don’t fall into either of those categories, you should take a long hard look at yourself and/or watch the video below for the piano-led instrumental track, ‘Chiaroscuro’, and see what you think:

The album is set to be released on the 18th of November. If you like what you hear, you can pre-order it via MIE Music here. Be aware that the LP is limited to a run of just 400 copies so act now if you want one. Alternatively, if you live in North America, you can pre-order the album via Bark & Hiss.

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The band say the inspiration for the album came from the minimalism and abstract geometry in the work of visual artists such as Bridget Riley and Julian Stanczak. Although I am no art (or indeed music) critic, I can certainly see (or rather hear) what they’re getting at; the comparison serves as a good description of the feel of the record. The band’s other description of the album is that it’s “not meant to be super conceptual or anything, just a cool album of nighttime grass thoughts”. That works too.

Fellow Europeans can get the album from MIE Music and North Americans from Bark & Hiss Records. Be aware that the LPs have a very limited release so hurry up if you want one!

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