Genius at work.
SONAA is a collective constantly in flux, featuring ten musicians (including members of Lightspeed Champion and Hope of the States) on this new album but sometimes containing as few as five depending on circumstances. The band hail from Brighton by way of The Midlands but they have a difficult sound to pin down, geographically speaking.
These are beautifully crafted songs; at their core they are unmistakeably folk but there is such a range of instrumentation that they can edge into post-rock and even occasionally jazz, like on the smooth and jangly ‘Damien’ with its 60s style brass and wind arrangement, the melancholy of the strings brings it back though and cements the emotionally charged atmosphere that is a feature of the whole album.
“Sons of Noel and Adrian” manages to appear simple and at times minimal whilst at the same time actually being full and epic; ‘Damien’ is a prime example, in its nine and a half minute length it goes through so many changes that at times you’d think it could hardly be the same track. As you move away from the Jazzy beginnings the track slides through patches that are just acoustic guitar and multiple vocals (Will Oldham style) and some that have so many instruments it sounds like an entire orchestra is working together to put those goose bumps on your arms.
The majority of the tunes rely on a backbone of acoustic guitar and solo vocal to introduce the melody, which can sometimes sound so intimate that you almost feel as if you are intruding on a private moment, however, that melody is then worked on, being picked up by the violin and various other instruments so that it builds to a crescendo of well formed noise which can be swirling and overwhelming but still manages to be gentle and lulling.
This is a record so full of spine-tingling moments of beauty that you can’t stop listening. Some moments are almost too intense, like the crescendo at the heart of ‘Ragwort’, on which the slightly eerie cacophony made the hairs on the back of my neck not just stand on end but jump up and run around the room looking for somewhere to hide. Moody and atmospheric are two words with which you will become very familiar. It’s not so much an album but an experience; one that will leave you breathless and spent.