With 'Derwent Waters Saint' Joe Volk envokes some powerful mind imagery and relaxes the soul if just for the breifest of moments
Joe Volk from the experimental band GONGA releases his debut album Derwent Waters Saint on Invada records. He is a bright young singing song-writing upstart who's well worth keeping an ear out for. His album features little more than his haunting vocals and soft-spoken guitar lilts, interspersed with an interesting array of manipulated sonics, but the sheer enormity of the minimalist soundscapes make it an experience impossible to ignore.
Easily likened to the absolute heroes of the British folk lure scene such as Nick Drake, with a modernity to his use of electric sound synthesis that stands him well apart from the crowd of average songwriters that music seems to be full to the top with currently. The album's a breathtakingly placid pause from a rushing real-life that is often so far from tranquil, but all the stresses and strains of that life come through in the music, nowhere more apparent than in 'Thaumaturgist' with it's strange gear-shifts from sweet swells of caressing melody to rampant strums of on-edge trepidation.
Opener 'You, Running' is gloriously apt in setting the scene for what is to come, with an incredibly beautiful vocal ascent around the words 'away, away, away, away,' that picks you up from your rooted position on the ground and hoists you into the air to soar noiselessly through clouds of soul dust. And it establishes this man in your mind as being something quite special.
All the music from thereon out is really quite lovely and a soft beige in colour, a sepia sunlight celluloid feel to it all. 'Toecutter (Our lady)' is a well-managed introspective search that results in admitting a severance of a relationship is all that can really save it, 'Our lady's less poorly without me,' 'Farne' follows and is beautifully quiet and reflectively free-forming, and 'Whole Pig, No Head' with it's harmonica is hauntingly picturesque, prison scenes at sunset come to mind.
The guitar tapestry often runs off by itself, separating from the infrequent vocals to form a trance-like state of colourful mindfilling evocation. You're left just to float on with the sensual sounds and seemingly endless relaxed strums of that hollow body of the acoustic guitar resonating with the vibrations of the metallic strings. The acoustic is an instrument that Joe Volk has tamed and made absolutely his own for this near-hour of lifting music.
Alike to an outer-body experience, when the CD finally stops revolving you are left wondering where you've just been, you know it has been a very special journey and you will take it again sometime soon I assure you. The eleven songs featured on Joe Volk's Derwent Waters Saint will take their effect and if you let them in they could well find a special place in you. It's a lovely soft and tranquil nightime album.