With contributions from Audreanne Fillon (cello), Jon Evans (pedal steel), Ben Heard (double bass), Ryan White and Max Izzo (both drums), and additional bass arrangements by Leonard Sauve, the Moulting sound is fluid and tactile. Opener ‘Oleanna’ leans most heavily towards the country end of this style, its lazy rhythms offering a reflective warmth which serves as the ideal underpinning for the crooned vocals, and ‘I’ll Be On Time (The Last Time I Speak To You)’ follows with a similarly wistful tone. ‘Prussian Blue’ emerges from an acoustic line but soon widens into a richer chamber pop atmosphere, maintaining the balance between smoothness and edge inherent in the Moulting vocal style.

With its upbeat tempo, ‘Spinning Out’ offers a country rock driving song, its brightness belying the uncertainty of its lyrics and its motion serving as a balm against such concerns, before ‘Pescado’ introduces something slower and more atmospheric. A careful, shaded song which might be morose or carefree depending on how you hold it up to the light. The closing title track is equally ambiguous in its tone, the sound ostensibly brighter though the vocals decidedly more downbeat. But within the idiosyncratic timings and impassioned yet controlled vocals lies something which seems to exist outside of simple concepts of bright or sad. A scene where death is a freeing motion, the moment the spirit leaves the body and returns home.

Artwork by Mathilde Jobin

The post Moulting – Vacation Autographs appeared first on Various Small Flames.