ToBy Wren Trio

Black Mountain (www.tobywren.com)

Toby Wren and his colleagues have a feel for the lavishly dark and slightly sinister. The cover image suggests as much: a disturbing Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg painting called A Shipwreck off a Rocky Coast. Wren writes and plays music that looms out of a prevailing gloom, his guitar sounding eerie, and its edge of distortion making the darkness more gritty than romantic. Bassist Andrew Shaw and drummer Chris Vale share a flair for deepening the shadows, drama and tension in Wren’s carefully sculpted compositions, without making them overblown. In fact restraint is a hallmark throughout, with the songs all kept to less than five minutes, so the solos feel distilled, and pools of solo guitar emphasise the prevailing sparseness. Compounding the impact is the sonic warmth on this vinyl version of the release.