Richard J Birkin – Vigils

Inspired by river mist and Murakami, and carrying echoes of Nils Frahm and Max Richter’s Sleep, sound artist/composer Birkin’s new work is beholden to a naturalism rich in tone and delicate in application; the sparse instrumentation – piano, acoustic guitar, the strings courtesy of the Iskra String Quartet (who’ve added lift and glide to material from the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Vampire Weekend) – representing etudes in grace and equilibrium.

Contemplative, yes, but also reaffirming; ascendant strings will do that to a record, yet the intelligence in Vigils is how it slips away from both classical conventions and expectations, from the drifting arpeggios of Accretions, and A History of Good Ghosts (with its lost beauty amidst intricate guitar), to mid-point Moonbathing – the only piece with a vocal – signifying both natural break and caressing folk lament (“Now I remember why ghosts like the dark and you don’t”). Compositions with a timeless quality – and they improve with every listen. [Duncan Harman]