a View From a Hill

The arrival of a new Andrew Chalk album is always a cause for celebration. Following 'A Light at the Edge of the World' (a single piece), the sequel, out on his Faraway Press imprint, finds a new collection of 19 pieces sequenced in story-like chapter and verse from memories and melodies of a nostalgic past. Played more in thoughtful focus and with a lyrical narrative. In recent years, Chalk's recordings have reconfigured away from the static drama of high minimalism and into collections of miniatures - intimate, languid, sometimes haunted, always lovely snatches of sonic ephemera that could be pieced together as a koan of lost memory and forgotten landscape. An evanescent echo and artfully accreted drone trickle throughout the album, all of which are swimming in illumined, golden baths of hallowed light. The album closes with a solstice in midwinter.