Lost Horizons

★★★★

In Quiet Moments BELLA UNION.

CD/DL/LP

Second album from superduo contains multitudes.

In 2017, former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde and Dif Juz drummer Richie Thomas reignited a collaboration they originally started in the ’80s, resulting in the dawn-to-dusk atmospheres of expansive debut Ojala. In Quiet Moments creates a similar ombré effect, an impressive cast of guests – John Grant, Midlake’s Tim Smith, Ren Harvieu – helping shade these songs from happy to sad. Not everything is as striking as the cosmic glide of the title track, featuring Portland soul veteran Ural Thomas, or One For Regret, Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin adding necessary salt and acid. Yet with the knowing retroetherealism of Every Beat That Passed (featuring Swedish vocalist Kavi Kwai) or Cordelia’s new age tides controlled by John Grant, In Quiet Moments opens out its own space to wander, a many-moods piece for complicated times.