Alain Weber – Hoover Cover

Hoover Cover is Swiss composer Alain Weber’s attempt to soundtrack the bleakest scene in everyone’s life, that moment where hope is just the faintest glimmer in the distance, yet is still undoubtedly within reach. Accomplished primarily through gently lilting piano melodies and backed by a string section that often proves ominous in tone, there is a sorrowful beauty radiating throughout.

An obvious focal point is his cover of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, an oft-imitated classic here given a new lease of life, an instrumental rendition which captures the desolation of the original without becoming a poor facsimile. When the use of piano at times proves too simplistic it’s Weber's skilful composition that lifts his work above many of his contemporaries, his use of strings giving a depth of tone and emotion, with the relaxed Pyramids utilising space as much as instrumentation to breathe new life into the album’s core. [David Bowes]