WilDeRNess HYMNAl

Anthropocene AwAl 5/10

Carl Sagan-inspired post-rock fails to ascend

This debut album, the solo project of British-Venezuelan singer and pianist Javier Walli, explores a musical narrative revolving around the Carl Sagan quote: “an organism at war with itself is doomed.” The album’s occasional doom-tinged tones may try to capture a state of ecological collapse but its overly dramatic piano lines and soaring, anguished and often bombastic vocals – think John Grant without the restraint and humour – struggle to offer much of anything. The eerie cinematic rumbles of tracks such as “Verguenza” unfurl nicely, but all too often the album feels trapped in a formulaic and repetitive post-rock template.