Sonny - The Spirit of Elegy
by Anthony Dhanendran
published: 9 / 10 / 2008
Label:
Minimal-escent Music
Format: CD
intro
Sparse, intriguing ambience on second album from trained, former chorister, Sonny
'The Spirit of Elegy' is an oddity. In essence it’s an ambient album, but there are vocals on most of the tracks that lift it from being purely a mood piece and into more general ‘songs’ territory. It’s Sonny’s second album, the previous one, 'Twilight-World Music', having been considerably more electronic. Apparently the new record is heavily influenced by the tradition of English Romanticism, something that’s easy to believe – the artist namechecks both the Cocteau Twins and William Blake, neatly covering both ends of the romantic spectrum over the last 300 years. Sonny’s voice is impossible to describe without resorting to the two adjectives kept in the cupboard specifically for this kind of post-rock music: “haunting” and “elegiac”. As you might be able to guess, 'The Spirit of Elegy' is a very serious album. Most of the music is played on long drawn-out synth notes, with no percussion and very little other instrumentation – the piano notes introducing 'Lighthouses For The Desolate' bring a welcome change from the unrelenting waves of the previous tracks, as do the stabbed strings on 'The Affliction Of Childhood'. On its own it might have sounded rather fake – the instrumentation is not as complex as are the vocals, certainly. But it’s those haunting vocals that give the record its point and purpose. It would be no surprise to find out that Sonny was a trained chorister – the vocals on some of the tracks, such as 'Earth And Dust', are not far away from those to be found in a cathedral cloister near you. On other tracks, such as 'Lighthouses For The Desolate' and 'The Body Attains the End Which Comes To Us All', though, Sonny sounds more like Antony Hegarty (as in “and the Johnsons”). It’s hard to know where to place this album. 'The Spirit of Elegy' is no mainstream record and it’s not going to get much radio play. Neither of those are bad things, of course, but in this case the main problem is that it’s hard to tell several of the tracks apart from each other, so similar are they in style and delivery. The sparse instrumentation and plaintive, lonely vocal style will not be to everybody’s tastes, but if you’ve been waiting all your life for someone to blend ambient soundscapes with plainchant vocals – well, this is it.
Track Listing:-
1 The Mourning Mist2 Frost Fair (London Elegy)
3 Earth and Dust
4 Lighthouses for the Desolate
5 The Body Attains the End Which Comes to Us All
6 The Affliction of Childhood
7 Solace
8 The Spirit of Elegy
9 Anthem for Radiant Trees
10 Rhapsody (After the Teares)
most viewed articles
current edition
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, 29/11/2023 and La Paqui, Madrid, 30/11/2023Anthony Phillips - Interview
Difford and Tilbrook - Difford and Tilbrook
Rain Parade - Interview
Oldfield Youth Club - Interview
Autumn 1904 - Interview
Shaw's Trailer Park - Interview
Cafe No. 9, Sheffield and Grass Roots Venues - Comment
Pete Berwick - ‘Too Wild to Tame’: The story of the Boyzz:
Chris Hludzik - Vinyl Stories
most viewed reviews
current edition
Marika Hackman - Big SighSerious Sam Barrett - A Drop of the Morning Dew
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - Swing Fever
Ian M Bailey - We Live in Strange Times
Loves - True Love: The Most of The Loves
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
Autumn 1904 - Tales of Innocence
Roberta Flack - Lost Takes
Banter - Heroes
Posey Hill - No Clear Place to Fall
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart