D. ROTHON

Nightscapes Clay Pipe Music A nocturnal journey in sound from south London multi-instrumentalist.

Nightfall and the way that it both changes our perceptions of the world and acts as a summons to sleep has inspired artists and musicians down through the ages, exercising a unique grip on our imaginations. On the wonderful Nightscapes, multiinstrumentalist David Rothon captures the various moods of the hours after dark, a contemplative musical journey with a few surprises along the way. It begins with The Midnight Bell/I Have Been Here Before, chiming pedal steel notes lost in a warm pool of reverb, before Mellotron and harmonica combine as twin heralds of sleep’s little death. …And Breathe perfectly mimics that sliding feeling as consciousness slips away, the chords pitch shifting through some misty veil. The minor key guitar figure and melancholic cor anglais of Waldeinsamkeit is pregnant with pastoral longing; the retro futurist lounge music of The Years Fall Away is like hearing John Barry’s theme to Midnight Cowboy on the

Moon. But this isn’t just the aural equivalent of a snuggle under the duvet – the tense, drifting drone of Unwoken City recalls Zeit-era Tangs, the night at its darkest just before dawn.