Hrsta — Ghosts Will Come and Kiss Our Eyes

Mike Moya has been away from the band he is most known for, Godspeed You Black Emperor, for a few years now. There is enough distance and development between his work with GYBE to refer to Hrsta as a proper band, rather than simply a "side project". Certainly there have been many other projects to come out of the Constellation Records stable since and during GYBE's prominence on the  scene.

Hrsta at first seemed like Moya's attempt to separate from the cinematic grandeur of GYBE's music in order to work within a song-oriented environment. It's admirable for an artist to change directions in an attempt to gain a fresh attitude, and ignite some sort of spark. With Hrsta, however, it seemed like Moya was trying to force himself into a more structured environment, and the artifice showed through on their previous albums. They felt like collections of songs rather than music driven by raw emotion.

Ghosts Will Come and Kiss Our Eyes appears to be the breaking point that Moya and company have been searching for these past few years. The album is a slow burner, its lack of immediacy being its strong point; The album creates a mood which is entirely missable if you don't listen to it in one sitting. Even in that context, it may take a few listens for it to sink in, because it's for the most part subtle and dark. Any album created by Moya will draw comparisons to GYBE, which is not entirely unwarranted. The drone passages colored by strings and his signature effect laden, melodic guitar is ever present. Also in common with GYBE is a feeling of melancholy resignation.

Ghosts stands apart because it comes across as a natural distillation of Moya's Tarkovsy-esque cinematic music with his vocal oriented songs. That's because the vocal tracks here feel like a continuation of an idea rather than an interruption of one. Moya's voice is an acquired taste for some, with an almost witch-like croak that some liken to Daniel Johnson, for lack of a better comparison. It appears as though he has worked hard to create music that fits his vocal style here, and as a result the flow of the album is unforced.

This album has a psych-folk weirdness to it, with mantra-like passages, and lack of proper choruses. Despite the popularity of psych-folk these days, there's no trend-sniffing going on here. Hrsta's music, GYBE comparisons aside, resides on its own distant island, away from outside interference. Ghosts Will Come to Kiss Our Eyes is in my humble opinion their finest, most individual work to date. It may take some time to find your way into this album, but once it clicks, you'll likely find that it was worth the wait.