| Lightning in a Twilight Hour |
| Fragments of a Former Moon |
Lightning in a Twilight Hour — Fragments of a Former Moon
••– New project from Bobby Wratten (The Field Mice/Northern Picture Library/Trembling Blue Stars/The Occasional Keepers)
••– Sad indie pop with electronics from the former Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars leader. 
Location: Surrey, England
Album release: April 28, 2015
Record Label: Elefant Records
N°.: ER–1200
Recording date: February 24, 2014 — August 6, 2014
Duration: 49:58
Tracks:
01 The Memory Museum 5:21
02 The Pattern Room 4:07
03 The Passerby 3:21
04 Fever Dreams of Emilia 4:08
05 The Absentee 5:41
06 Taking the Figure Out of the Landscape 5:00
07 Unanswered 5:25
08 I Dreamt Music 5:33
09 Night Traveller 4:51
10 Starfields 6:31
CREDITS:
Ilustración: David Duprez / Artwork: Luis Calvo [Elefant Design]
Illustration: David Duprez / Design: Luis Calvo
••– Artwork — Luis Calvo (2)
••– Bass — Michael Hiscock
••– Cover [Image] — Jean Duprez
••– Keyboards, Programmed By, Computer [Processing], Engineer, Mastered By, Producer — Ian Catt
••– Performer — Lightning In A Twilight Hour
••– Producer [In Association With] — Lightning In A Twilight Hour
••– Vocals — Anne Mari Barker–Davies*
••– Vocals, Recorded By [Additional Field Recordings] — Beth Arzy
••– Voice — Aga Jasko
••– Written–by — Robert Wratten*
••– Double–LP is a Limited Edition of 500 copies on Clear Vinyl **
••– The vinyl includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]
••– Beth Arzy Field Recording, Vocals
••– Anne Mari Barker–Davies Vocals
••– Luis Calvo Artwork
••– Ian Catt Engineer, Keyboards, Mastering, Processing, Producer, Programming
••– Jean Duprez Cover Image
••– Michael Hiscock Bass
••– Aga Jasko Voices
••– Lightning in a Twilight Hour Associate Producer
••– Robert Wratten Composer
Description:
••– The moment has finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier or more satisfied — we have LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR’s first album in our hands. LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR is Bobby Wratten’s new project, which we were talking about recently because of the introductory Mini–LP “Slow Changes”. And there is not a doubt in our minds that Bobby Wratten’s (THE FIELD MICE, NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY, and TREMBLING BLUE STARS) fans are going to feel tremendous happiness when they listen to the songs that make up this first LP, “Fragments Of A Former Moon”.
© The Field Mice #Robert Wratten #Michael Hiscock#Harvey Williams #
••– It’s an album that shows off the two most remarkable facets of the songwriter: pop melodies that intertwine melancholic and evocative shades with an ambiance of experimentation in which the music becomes a bucolic, intoxicating landscape. In this first section we definitely include the album’s opening song, “The Memory Museum”, which carries the songwriter’s unmistakable mark, and which reminds us of other songs from the TREMBLING BLUE STARS period. “The Pattern Room” has a touch of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop about it and sees the band with Trish Keenan of BROADCAST very much in their thoughts on this “Die Brücke” inspired song. “The Passerby” delves into the melancholy of Mark Hollis’s more introspective albums, with certain baroque touches, while “Fever Dreams Of Emilia” and “Taking The Figure Out Of The Landscape” fit more into the instrumental section, constructing evocative textures along the lines of genre–masters Brian Eno and LABRADFORD, creating dense, hazy sensations, and always leaving room for the tones and registers to stretch out into the harmonic horizons.
© Robert Wratten, Trembling Blue Stars
••– “The Absentee” brings a warm, acoustic touch with baroque accents, but without abandoning the territory of sadness to tell a tale of an absent poet and the sea.“Unanswered” begins with a sonic landscape but soon opens up for Bobby Wratten’s voice, which navigates slowly through outlines of white noise and plaintive rhythms, but leaving traces of hope in the seas of tears. “I Dreamt Music” is a declaration of their intentions, entering a dreamlike world, based once again on repetition and atmospheric creation. The softly psychedelic “Night Traveller” reminds us at times of GALAXIE 500 and OPAL, a song that recovers a lighter and more pristine tone to let “Starfields” add the final brush stroke with a cloak of night stars to an album that is a state of mind in and of itself, a painting of clean lines and transparent colours.
••– There is no doubt that followers and steadfast fans of Bobby Wratten’s career will need to recover their breath upon seeing that Bobby has not abandoned the songwriting path, and that he keeps leaving a clear mark of his qualities and infinite inspiration.
Review by Tim Sendra; Score: ****
••– True lovers of indie pop, that of the saddest, most heartbreaking variety, know that a Bobby Wratten project is guaranteed to deliver all the tears and melancholic feels one poor soul can handle. The Field Mice, Northern Picture Library, Trembling Blue Stars...records by these groups rate among the finest sad pop ever made. After taking a break from breaking hearts for a few years, Wratten returned with Lightning in a Twilight Hour and it's plain at once from seeing the band's name that there isn't going to be a lot of laughs involved. After a typically lovely EP, Slow Changes, was released in early 2015, Wratten and a very familiar crew (longtime engineer Ian Catt, former bandmates Michael Hiscock, Anne Mari Barker–Davies, and Beth Arzy) returned quickly with a full album, Fragments of a Former Moon, that only adds more luster to Wratten's CV. Filled with the kind of desperately sad songs that almost revel in their bleakness yet offer the listener solace through the painfully tender melodies and words, the album is a reliably glorious bummer. After starting off almost sprightly with a couple songs that have some forward motion and have Wratten's moping vocals offset by the light–as–air singing of Beth Arzy (who takes the lead on track two, the spy movie–influenced and almost cheerful "The Pattern Room" and "Night Traveller" later on), the record takes a turn for the gloomy with a string of slow, sad, love–lost songs and a trio of ambient instrumentals ("Fever Dreams of Emilia," "Taking the Figure Out of the Landscape," and "Starfields") that provide a perfect soundtrack for a day spent in bed with the covers pulled over your head. As with all his projects, Wratten's brand of melancholy on Fragments of a Former Moon is warmly inviting, comforting, and intimate, like a kind word from an old friend or a smile from a stranger. It's too soon to tell if Lightning in a Twilight Hour will be the equal of Wratten's other bands, but judging from the two releases so far, it seems pretty likely.
Artist Biography by Tim Sendra
••– Bobby Wratten was a founding member of the influential indie pop Field Mice in the late '80s, spending many years writing, playing, and singing sad songs about love won and lost. When that band folded, he went on to Northern Picture Library and Trembling Blue Stars, continuing on in much the same vein. After the latter band folded in 2010, Wratten took some time to regroup before starting his next project, Lightning in a Twilight Hour, in 2014. Working with longtime producer Ian Catt, Field Mice bassist Michael Hiscock, Trembling Blue Stars vocalist Beth Arzy, and Field Mice/Northern Picture Library vocalist (and inspiration for many of Wratten's songs) Anne Mari Barker–Davies, it's easy to understand why Lightning in a Twilight Hour shared many sonic similarities to Wratten's previous projects. Hooking up with Spanish label Elefant, the band released a single, "The Memory Museum," in late 2014, which was followed by an EP, Slow Changes, then an LP, Fragments of a Former Moon, during the first part of 2015.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightninginatwilighthour
Label: http://elefant.com/
Blog: http://thestreetlampdoesntcast.blogspot.com/
Also:
Keith Bruce, Wednesday 22 April 2015
••– http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/music/cd-review-lightning-in-a-twilight-hour-fragments-of-a-former-moon-elefant.123740083
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| Lightning in a Twilight Hour |
| Fragments of a Former Moon |
••– New project from Bobby Wratten (The Field Mice/Northern Picture Library/Trembling Blue Stars/The Occasional Keepers)
••– Sad indie pop with electronics from the former Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars leader.
Location: Surrey, England
Album release: April 28, 2015
Record Label: Elefant Records
N°.: ER–1200
Recording date: February 24, 2014 — August 6, 2014
Duration: 49:58
Tracks:
01 The Memory Museum 5:21
02 The Pattern Room 4:07
03 The Passerby 3:21
04 Fever Dreams of Emilia 4:08
05 The Absentee 5:41
06 Taking the Figure Out of the Landscape 5:00
07 Unanswered 5:25
08 I Dreamt Music 5:33
09 Night Traveller 4:51
10 Starfields 6:31
CREDITS:
Ilustración: David Duprez / Artwork: Luis Calvo [Elefant Design]
Illustration: David Duprez / Design: Luis Calvo
••– Artwork — Luis Calvo (2)
••– Bass — Michael Hiscock
••– Cover [Image] — Jean Duprez
••– Keyboards, Programmed By, Computer [Processing], Engineer, Mastered By, Producer — Ian Catt
••– Performer — Lightning In A Twilight Hour
••– Producer [In Association With] — Lightning In A Twilight Hour
••– Vocals — Anne Mari Barker–Davies*
••– Vocals, Recorded By [Additional Field Recordings] — Beth Arzy
••– Voice — Aga Jasko
••– Written–by — Robert Wratten*
••– Double–LP is a Limited Edition of 500 copies on Clear Vinyl **
••– The vinyl includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]
••– Beth Arzy Field Recording, Vocals
••– Anne Mari Barker–Davies Vocals
••– Luis Calvo Artwork
••– Ian Catt Engineer, Keyboards, Mastering, Processing, Producer, Programming
••– Jean Duprez Cover Image
••– Michael Hiscock Bass
••– Aga Jasko Voices
••– Lightning in a Twilight Hour Associate Producer
••– Robert Wratten Composer
Description:
••– The moment has finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier or more satisfied — we have LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR’s first album in our hands. LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR is Bobby Wratten’s new project, which we were talking about recently because of the introductory Mini–LP “Slow Changes”. And there is not a doubt in our minds that Bobby Wratten’s (THE FIELD MICE, NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY, and TREMBLING BLUE STARS) fans are going to feel tremendous happiness when they listen to the songs that make up this first LP, “Fragments Of A Former Moon”.
••– It’s an album that shows off the two most remarkable facets of the songwriter: pop melodies that intertwine melancholic and evocative shades with an ambiance of experimentation in which the music becomes a bucolic, intoxicating landscape. In this first section we definitely include the album’s opening song, “The Memory Museum”, which carries the songwriter’s unmistakable mark, and which reminds us of other songs from the TREMBLING BLUE STARS period. “The Pattern Room” has a touch of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop about it and sees the band with Trish Keenan of BROADCAST very much in their thoughts on this “Die Brücke” inspired song. “The Passerby” delves into the melancholy of Mark Hollis’s more introspective albums, with certain baroque touches, while “Fever Dreams Of Emilia” and “Taking The Figure Out Of The Landscape” fit more into the instrumental section, constructing evocative textures along the lines of genre–masters Brian Eno and LABRADFORD, creating dense, hazy sensations, and always leaving room for the tones and registers to stretch out into the harmonic horizons.
••– “The Absentee” brings a warm, acoustic touch with baroque accents, but without abandoning the territory of sadness to tell a tale of an absent poet and the sea.“Unanswered” begins with a sonic landscape but soon opens up for Bobby Wratten’s voice, which navigates slowly through outlines of white noise and plaintive rhythms, but leaving traces of hope in the seas of tears. “I Dreamt Music” is a declaration of their intentions, entering a dreamlike world, based once again on repetition and atmospheric creation. The softly psychedelic “Night Traveller” reminds us at times of GALAXIE 500 and OPAL, a song that recovers a lighter and more pristine tone to let “Starfields” add the final brush stroke with a cloak of night stars to an album that is a state of mind in and of itself, a painting of clean lines and transparent colours.
••– There is no doubt that followers and steadfast fans of Bobby Wratten’s career will need to recover their breath upon seeing that Bobby has not abandoned the songwriting path, and that he keeps leaving a clear mark of his qualities and infinite inspiration.
Review by Tim Sendra; Score: ****
••– True lovers of indie pop, that of the saddest, most heartbreaking variety, know that a Bobby Wratten project is guaranteed to deliver all the tears and melancholic feels one poor soul can handle. The Field Mice, Northern Picture Library, Trembling Blue Stars...records by these groups rate among the finest sad pop ever made. After taking a break from breaking hearts for a few years, Wratten returned with Lightning in a Twilight Hour and it's plain at once from seeing the band's name that there isn't going to be a lot of laughs involved. After a typically lovely EP, Slow Changes, was released in early 2015, Wratten and a very familiar crew (longtime engineer Ian Catt, former bandmates Michael Hiscock, Anne Mari Barker–Davies, and Beth Arzy) returned quickly with a full album, Fragments of a Former Moon, that only adds more luster to Wratten's CV. Filled with the kind of desperately sad songs that almost revel in their bleakness yet offer the listener solace through the painfully tender melodies and words, the album is a reliably glorious bummer. After starting off almost sprightly with a couple songs that have some forward motion and have Wratten's moping vocals offset by the light–as–air singing of Beth Arzy (who takes the lead on track two, the spy movie–influenced and almost cheerful "The Pattern Room" and "Night Traveller" later on), the record takes a turn for the gloomy with a string of slow, sad, love–lost songs and a trio of ambient instrumentals ("Fever Dreams of Emilia," "Taking the Figure Out of the Landscape," and "Starfields") that provide a perfect soundtrack for a day spent in bed with the covers pulled over your head. As with all his projects, Wratten's brand of melancholy on Fragments of a Former Moon is warmly inviting, comforting, and intimate, like a kind word from an old friend or a smile from a stranger. It's too soon to tell if Lightning in a Twilight Hour will be the equal of Wratten's other bands, but judging from the two releases so far, it seems pretty likely.
Artist Biography by Tim Sendra
••– Bobby Wratten was a founding member of the influential indie pop Field Mice in the late '80s, spending many years writing, playing, and singing sad songs about love won and lost. When that band folded, he went on to Northern Picture Library and Trembling Blue Stars, continuing on in much the same vein. After the latter band folded in 2010, Wratten took some time to regroup before starting his next project, Lightning in a Twilight Hour, in 2014. Working with longtime producer Ian Catt, Field Mice bassist Michael Hiscock, Trembling Blue Stars vocalist Beth Arzy, and Field Mice/Northern Picture Library vocalist (and inspiration for many of Wratten's songs) Anne Mari Barker–Davies, it's easy to understand why Lightning in a Twilight Hour shared many sonic similarities to Wratten's previous projects. Hooking up with Spanish label Elefant, the band released a single, "The Memory Museum," in late 2014, which was followed by an EP, Slow Changes, then an LP, Fragments of a Former Moon, during the first part of 2015.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightninginatwilighthour
Label: http://elefant.com/
Blog: http://thestreetlampdoesntcast.blogspot.com/
Also:
Keith Bruce, Wednesday 22 April 2015
••– http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/music/cd-review-lightning-in-a-twilight-hour-fragments-of-a-former-moon-elefant.123740083
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