Joanne Robertson is one of those UK voices where the most exciting parts aren’t found in the obvious. On her collaborations with underground icon Dean Blunt, the artist – also a painter – already made it clear: music that plays with gentle question marks, where voices and instruments fade into the fog, is often the most haunting. Her new album now brings together everything that, in recent years, was only ever hinted at.
It’s in the space between each guitar stroke – right where the faint, fading reverb carries the most emotion and hides subtle messages – that you’re invited to settle in during this 45-minute set of doomy fog-folk and ghost ballads. Her guitar songs, more reminiscent than ever of Grouper (let’s be fair: there are worse references to flaunt), rise above the miniature sketches of the heartbreakingly beautiful predecessor Blue Car. That’s also thanks to cellist and collaborator Oliver Coates, who joins her on three tracks – including the highlight, »Gown«.
Blurrr
