NIGHT

I've been buying music for 30+ years. In that time maybe 4 albums have grabbed my attention in the way "Night" has. The last 2 to do so were Marillion's "Brave" and Sigur Ros's (). The other two would be King Crimson's "Starless and Bible Black" when I bought it back in 1977 and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", the second album I ever bought way back in 1976 when I was 11 years old.

In my opinion, "Night" is a true masterpiece. A cohesive, coherent, creative and marvelous work. It is sparse. It is dense. It is layered. It soars. It is evocative and emotive. It is an album to listen to with the lights off on a quiet night. It immerses you. It is lusciously produced, but not over produced.

Yes, I can hear a lot of other artists in their music, but it is not derivative. After all, gazpacho is a dish of many flavours and ingredients. My notes for the first track, "Dream of Stone", cite similarities to Radiohead, Marillion, Office of Strategic Influence, Porcupine Tree, Boards of Canada, Chroma Key, Mike Oldfield and Sigur Ros in parts. I could throw in Roger Waters, Davy Spillane and others later in the album. There are elements of folk, world music, ambient, atmospheric, neo-prog and more fabulously woven into the one continuous 53 minute piece divided into 5 parts.

It's an album that like a fantastic lover gradually reveals more every time you experience it, its nuances drawing you ever deeper into it's embrace where you taste ever sweeter nectars.

For me the highlight of the album is the atmospheric, dream-like "Upside Down", from it's Sigur Ros-esque opening, then that ethereal, floating voice of Jan Henrik Ohme, sounding like a mix of Thom Yorke, Steve Hogarth and David Sylvian leads you into a section that almost reminds one of "This is the 21st century" with it's guiding bass line, segueing into a drum driven OSI-like passage before the bass deliciously fattens under Rothery-like guitars and then the piece closes with a mournful, Davy Spillane-esque coda with low whistle.

It's not radio friendly. It's not something you pop on to the cd player while you cook dinner. It's the sumptious feast you eat by candle-light, savouring each bite while feeling guilty for being so selfish as to want the experience all to yourself, but knowing that something this wonderful demands to be shared.

If the music you listen to is an intrinsic part of you, and forms the soundtrack to your life, as my music seems to for me, then you need to have "Night" as part of you.

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