»Reflections In A Rear View Mirror« is a tonally and stylistically extremely diverse anthology of Dark Arts, which was founded in the early 1980s. The band around keyboarder and multi-instrumentalist Stephanie Payne moves seamlessly across boundaries of style and genre. The musicians from Columbus, Ohio switch effortlessly from an echo laden synthesizer ambience to relaxed Krautrock improvisation and atmospherically dense sound collages, a repetitive electro bass figure and string-driven opulent melancholic oriental ballads to almost traditional sounding folk excursions from the Balkans to Great Britain and Greece. The music sounds voluptuous without appearing pathetic and uses a wide range of instruments. Many acoustic stringed instruments from all over the world are used, plus many percussion instruments, bowed gongs, dulcimer, piano, flutes, accordion, balaphone, hurdy-gurdy and jew’s harp. On some more song-oriented tracks the warm alto voice of Sue Ann Mason is heard as well. With »Reflections In A Rear View Mirror« by Dark Arts, the Belgian label Stroom once again proves its special hand at digging up forgotten or lost musical treasures.
The Flatmates
I Could Be In Heaven
Optic Nerve