Best known as one half of Maine’s psych folk duo Arborea, Buck Curran’s mesmerising solo debut doesn’t depart too much from the whispered, dream-states Arborea excelled in since their formation in 2005. With the duo currently on hiatus, the presence of Shanti Deschaine’s gossamer-thin backing vocals on the hypnotic New Moontide and a brooding, sinister reading of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising provides a reassuring continuity.
Thanks to its breathtaking production, whole worlds hang in the plucked harmonics of Curran’s guitar strings, their deep echoes suggesting lonely, woebegone figures in lost landscapes. There’s an unerring sense of melancholy threaded through melodies that sometimes bring to mind the intimate reveries of vintage John Renbourn on the one hand, and Ry Cooder’s aching, cinematic slide work on the other. The border between folk and electronica shimmers and blurs on the vast spacescapes of Andromeda and the 13-minute title track, imbued with radiant harmonium and Deschaine’s tremulous invocations, is a haunted and haunting masterpiece.
