2002 - UK
Contemporary Folk, Chamber Folk, Ambient Pop
Straight from the imagination of two artists as important as discreet, Out of Season is the fruit of two legends from the nineties, Beth Gibbons and Paul Webb, known under the monicker Rustin Man. The first one, singer with an immediately recognizable voice, helped shaped one of the most defining genre of the nineties when she was singing in Portishead and contributed to the rise of trip-hop. With only three albums before 2002 recorded with the band from Bristol, Beth Gibbons is a rare gem you can only find on other artists albums for a feature, like O.rang. Her collaborator on this album is Talk Talk former bassist. With Slint’s Spiderland, Talk Talk’s last albums Spirit of Eden and especially Laughing Stock participated to the birth of post-rock, also one of the most important genre of the nineties. Their partnership highlight what those two genres share in common : a certain darkness as well as an appetence for musical experimentation and slow and laconic instrumental build-up.
While the first abstract colours of an eminently autumnal album start sounding, Beth Gibbons’ voice progressively appears to sing us the main theme spanning the album : she shares her ignorance. On Mysteries, the singer-songwriter contemplates the landscape in front of her, they become tragically empty on Funny Time of the Year or inhabited by figures of despair on Tom the Model. But Beth Gibbons refuses to recount those stories in a pragmatic way. She prefers to rely on the sound of words rather than their meaning. This method clearly defines what this album is, the sensitive and powerful journey of two composers meandering around their anguishes. When Gibbons summons Billie Holiday’s spirit on the stellar Show, she only needs four instruments (a discreet bass, a flute and a cello, a piano only playing four notes) to recreate the sound of their endless fight against existence. Rough and melodic, Gibbons’ vulnerable singing chills us when she reveals her sombre poem to our ears.
If you let yourself carry by the subtle musicality of the duet, you’ll notice we easily get rid of the word “folk” encapsulating the album in order to embrace a way more hybrid perspective, just like on the most baroque music piece off the album Tom the Model, Spider Monkey and Funny Time of the Year. Except for the first song cited above, the method Rustin Man uses to build his instrumental takeoff seems to never leave the ground, as if they were weighed down by the foggy state of mind of Gibbons’ lyrics. This unique reunion (Rustin Man and Gibbons never worked together after this, although Rustin Man contributed to discover Gibbons when he invited her to sing back vocals on .O.rang’s Herd of Instinct) creates, paradoxically, an indelible moment of music during which we become aware of the high speed with which present moments vanish into thin air. Both artists being at the end of their thirties, they reach a special moment in their life where they reflect on the flight of time. But Out of Season isn’t a lament, it’s a testimony.
While the first abstract colours of an eminently autumnal album start sounding, Beth Gibbons’ voice progressively appears to sing us the main theme spanning the album : she shares her ignorance. On Mysteries, the singer-songwriter contemplates the landscape in front of her, they become tragically empty on Funny Time of the Year or inhabited by figures of despair on Tom the Model. But Beth Gibbons refuses to recount those stories in a pragmatic way. She prefers to rely on the sound of words rather than their meaning. This method clearly defines what this album is, the sensitive and powerful journey of two composers meandering around their anguishes. When Gibbons summons Billie Holiday’s spirit on the stellar Show, she only needs four instruments (a discreet bass, a flute and a cello, a piano only playing four notes) to recreate the sound of their endless fight against existence. Rough and melodic, Gibbons’ vulnerable singing chills us when she reveals her sombre poem to our ears.
If you let yourself carry by the subtle musicality of the duet, you’ll notice we easily get rid of the word “folk” encapsulating the album in order to embrace a way more hybrid perspective, just like on the most baroque music piece off the album Tom the Model, Spider Monkey and Funny Time of the Year. Except for the first song cited above, the method Rustin Man uses to build his instrumental takeoff seems to never leave the ground, as if they were weighed down by the foggy state of mind of Gibbons’ lyrics. This unique reunion (Rustin Man and Gibbons never worked together after this, although Rustin Man contributed to discover Gibbons when he invited her to sing back vocals on .O.rang’s Herd of Instinct) creates, paradoxically, an indelible moment of music during which we become aware of the high speed with which present moments vanish into thin air. Both artists being at the end of their thirties, they reach a special moment in their life where they reflect on the flight of time. But Out of Season isn’t a lament, it’s a testimony.