Opening track ‘Everything Goes’ plunges us back into the characteristic Rivulets atmosphere, melancholy infused with a sense of patience, pocked with enough space to allow rumination. Listening feels like floating in a calm ocean bay at midnight, silent save for the hum of other people’s distant lives and the city lights spangling on the water around you.

Built upon on a foundation of snarling guitar, ‘Not Today’ finds Amundson delivering punchy lines in crests of cymbal-heavy crescendo, while ‘Because I Don’t Care’ strips right back into something of a ballad. Emotion is apparent, the immediacy clear in the way Amundson’s vocals strain and drift with regret, lamenting the fact he is destined to hurt even the people he cares about most.

“At times the night it gets so dark
And I wonder where you are
You said take me away from here
You said take me away from here

Because I don’t care
I hurt the ones
I’ll hurt you too
It’s what I do”

There’s a lovely Mazzy Star vibe on ‘Dark Days’ a short and simple track that shifts and sways with a a woozy tenderness, while ‘I Was Lost Before I Met You’ brings to mind Sun Kil Moon with its restrained electric guitar and honest writing (“I was lost before I met you, I was lost, I was in the dark”). Both ‘Sirens’ and ‘You Can Never Come back’ feel more like nods to Jason Molina, a slow-burning sense of doom blooming across the tracks, guitars stinging down like lightning bolts around Amundson’s vocals and the thump of percussion.

‘24’ is something of a change of pace, a lonely acoustic folk song that feels like a late-night whisper compared to the rest of the record. Gone are the electric guitars, the grand percussion, leaving only Amundson’s quiet voice and a sense of stark sentiment. Behind this sits the subtle hiss of ambient noise, a sound barely there yet always there, solitude so keen it vibrates the air around you.

Returning to a richer sound, closer ‘Lucky’ is a love song, although not one of the gooey, sickly variety. Rather, this is a connection hard won, tested by forces both exterior and personal and still refusing to break. The emotion then is not one of heart-melting or head-spinning but a calm disbelief, an assurance not in the ability of another to change your life in epiphanic flashes, but rather the enriching nature of perseverance and generosity.

“We’ve been around
We’ve seen our ups and downs
And I’m thankful
You still put up with me”

In Our Circle is out now and you can get it via Talitres.

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The album’s title is a direct reference to this period in Stratton’s life (the Twin Peaks reference a result of repeated bed-ridden viewings during his recovery). The Gray Lodge represents a midway point between the White and Black Lodges which serve as epicentres of good and evil in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. “What struck me about what I was going through was that all the notions of good and bad and pain and pleasure, darkness and lightness, were all gone,” he says. “They no longer made any sense to me because my frame of reference was completely different. The Gray Lodge was the hospital for me, and the Northwest in general―this really gray, dark, rainy place where I was going to heal. The album title is about coming out of that experience feeling a bit wiser than I was before.”

Musically, Gray Lodge Wisdom is a worthy addition to Stratton’s impressive canon. His finger picked guitar and beautiful string arrangements are present, as are his woderfully eloquent lyrics. The album also contains some very nice guest appearances. Tamara Lindeman (aka The Weather Station) provides a guest verse on the title track, and Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins) sings on ‘The Arrow Darkens’. The sound is subtle, gentle and reflective, not mournful nor angry or jubilant.

But the legacy of the album is its impact on Stratton’s attitude towards his disease. This is not an album based entirely on the pain and suffering of that period of his life. Rather it is a portrait of a young man feeling his way into the world. Yes his disease has left an indelible mark on him, but he refuses to be defined by the disease alone, and is now attempting to hang on to the positive effects it had on him. “I feel like I have to choose the things to hold onto that I want to remember and that I want to continue to make a part of who I am,” he explains. “Coming out on the other side of this and having an immense feeling of gratitude is a pretty powerful thing.” The album is one of acceptance: a recognition that suffering and death are part of life, and a conviction that these things should not define our existence.

“Why sing about death when I almost died? Why sing about life when I’m still alive?”

You can buy Gray Lodge Wisdom right now via French label Talitres

P.S. You can still get If You Wait Long Enough the excellent benefit album that was put together to help Stratton pay his medical bills.

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