Modern Nature

★★★ Island Of Noise

BELLA UNION. LP

Second full-length from exUltimate Painting frontman Jack Cooper and compadres. Nodding to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the latest from the prolific Modern Nature (mini-albums and cassetteonly releases abound) seeks refuge from the clamour and confusion of our times in songs that marry folk-inflected introspection to brass and strings improvisation. Drily recorded and subtle to a fault, in places, Island Of Noise becomes so evanescent it threatens to disappear altogether, but when Cooper’s whispered, fragmentary vocals and shimmering electric guitar greet Aaron Neveu’s rolling drum patterns and Jeff Tobias’ meandering brass arabesques, as they do on sublime standouts Dunes and Masque, there is a jazzily transcendent, ineffably British Isles magic at play here – Nick Drake and Mark Hollis spring readily to mind. The accompanying Island Of Silence proffers an allinstrumental ‘reimagining’ of the songs, while a slim volume features related texts by authors including poet Robin Robertson and, it says here, fungus expert Merlin Sheldrake.