TIM BOWNESS: Lost In The Ghost Light (ATMOSPHERIC ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

So here comes the man who isn't a horse whisperer but a listener whisperer: Tim Bowness is back with his fourth record, "Lost in the Ghost Light", a concept album whose theme evokes the anguish and regrets of a rock musician (what else?) at the dawn of his career.

"Stupid Things That Mean The World", his previous opus, had marked a certain breathlessness of his author. It is true that Tim Bowness works in atmospheric rock, a delicate musical genre where it is easy to get bogged down in a routine propitious to boredom, something that had verged on the album released in 2015 that sounded too much like its predecessor, "Abandoned Dancehall Dreams". Will "Lost In The Ghost Light" be able to extract itself from the rut created by its predecessors?

If the cover breaks away from the drawn style of the two previous productions, the line-up reembarks more or less the same stars (Stephen Bennett (Henry Fool), Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief), Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree), Andrew Booker (Sanguine Hum), David Rhodes (Peter Gabriel)) backed by prestigious guests (Kit Watkins (Happy The Man/Camel), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)) and the production is once again entrusted to Steven Wilson, the modern Croesus capable of turning everything he touches into gold.

He proves once again that his reputation is not misused, delivering a flawless production that makes justice to all the instruments. Guitars, keyboards, violins, flutes, bass and drums all benefiting from a clear and limpid sound and the superpositions of layers never alter the clarity of the result. And it would have been a pity if a duller production had spoiled this magnificent album. Because, let's kill the suspense, Tim Bowness delivers here his most beautiful work, venturing out of his cozy atmospheric cocoon to flirt with progressive compositions. And the progressive of the best level, often evoking by its melodies alternating power and delicacy, its crystalline guitar arpeggios, its solitary synthesizer complaints, its flute volutes, the greatest of the progressive bands, I have called it Genesis. It is enough to listen to 'Worlds Of Yesterday' (where the notes of acoustic guitar are as many pearls of rain and the lines of electric guitar and keyboard of complaints), 'Moonshot Manchild' (the long instrumental bridge alternating dynamic and soaring movements in a great Genesis tradition, the passages with synths of an unreal beauty to give the shiver) or the very successful 'You Wanted To Be Seen' to be convinced of it.

Coming out of his usual languor, Bowness gives a boost to his compositions, dynamizing them frequently by varying the tempos, well helped by an efficient rhythmic pair that gives all the necessary relief. Kill The Pain That's Killing You' is the best example, introducing a talkative and cheeky electric guitar, quickly relayed by quasi-tribal percussions and a pulsating bass. Tim Bowness is more "rock" (in the restraint all the same) than usual and leaves his comfort zone to surprise with a crimson track in the soul (the presence of Andrew Keeling, exegete of King Crimson and author of several essays on his discography, is perhaps for some other reason ?)

And even when he returns to a more atmospheric, soft and melancholic style, the beauty of the melodies and the purity of the arrangements manage without difficulty to keep the listener's attention. Only 'You'll Be The Silence', in spite of a very successful introduction, turns out to be too long for the somewhat repetitive theme it brings. On the other hand, the short eponymous track is a model of gaunt atmosphere, both disturbing and fairy-like, which we would have liked to see lasting.

By mixing progressive and atmospheric, by insufflating a certain dynamism to his compositions and by leaving the vicious couplet-chorus circle thanks to superb instrumental digressions, Tim Bowness has known how to renew himself and surprise the listener with this beautiful album. - Official website

TIM BOWNESS

LOST IN THE GHOST LIGHT

INSIDEOUT MUSIC

ATMOSPHERIC ROCK