Richard Knox & Frédéric D. Oberland – The Rustle of the Stars

Envisioned as a sonic voyage through the vast and barren reaches of the North Pole, this collaborative album between multi-instrumentalist Frédéric D. Oberland (FareWell Poetry) and Gizeh Records founder Richard Knox – recorded within the high rising walls of the St. Margaret of Antioch Church in Leeds – is a mournful, desolate, and ultimately swoon-inducing experience.

 

Though the ideas which led to its inception were tightly focused on one concept, the music itself speaks more generally of a human fascination with the elements. The Wreck of Hope – the longest piece here – is wholly representative of the kind of sounds found elsewhere on the record: echoed piano notes which fade out solemnly, weepy cellos, sampled ambience and an arrangement of slides and chimes which equate to a droney, funereal dirge. Party music it ain't, but these two talented friends have created a blissfully atmospheric work.