Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Murralin Lane - Our House Is On The Wall [12K - 2010]

Sweden's David Wenngren is usually to be found under the name of Library Tapes releasing several albums of classical piano vignettes wrapped in field recordings since 2005, but as Murralin Lane the sound sources are not so obvious except for the haunting vocals of Ylva Wiklund.

On the cryptically titled 'Our House Is On The Wall', Wenngren creates a series of seven similar sound-pools across just over half-an-hour from tones, possibly born of piano, guitar or strings, that are severely stretched highlighting the digital kinks of the process. Into these paradoxical extensions that bear both organic and mechanic qualities individual glistening notes are dropped forming small, concentric patterns through which Wiklund's fragile slow song is filtered.

The combination becomes increasingly lugubrious as the album progresses. Initially, the subtly wavering drone of 'All We Hear Are Birds' suggests shafts of light warming a creaky porch at dawn, the undercurrents in the sound reflecting a gentle morning stretch. The passage from sleep to wakefulness continues into 'Folding Paper Planes' as Wiklund's subdued voice wanders wistfully around a bed of fragile waves, shimmering and stately but starting to stutter and faintly resist their otherwise gliding grace. But by the end of the third episode, 'She Is Climbing', the digital distressing of the audio starts to vandalise the raked textures of a pastoral path.

Midway, tinny filters chill the amber tones here and there as one starts to notice that all the tracks seem to stubbornly converge around the same extended note, placing a monotonous emphasis on mid to high frequencies. By the end of the album, without much in the way of variety in pace or melodic progression, the feeling is bleak. With the vocals increasingly emerging (although retaining a cellphone delivery) to remind of a lonely girl singing by herself in a deserted school playground, the album taken as a whole seems to artfully describe loss and the ensuing sad reminiscence - like morbidly returning to the stomping grounds of a deceased friend despite the predictable pain it brings as part of the mourning process.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
Latest Reviews

Murralin Lane - Our House Is On ...
Sweden's David Wenngren is usually to be found under the name of Library Tapes releasing several albums of classical piano vignettes wrapped in field recordi...
210725   Skullcap - Snakes of Albuquerque
210725   Can - Live in Aston 1977
180725   Dirk Serries - Zonal Disturb...
180725   Various Artists - Martina Ver...
180725   Vampire At Midnight - Vampire...
180725   Johannes Kalitzke - Kapitan N...
170725   Paula Sanchez/Katharina Weber...
170725   Black Gravel - Black Gravel ...
170725   Timothy McCormack & Jack Yarb...
160725   Primeiro - Music for Horses ...
Latest Articles

Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sharp t...
It’s fair to say the Sharksploitation genre is often tried, tested, and to be honest, tired. Fear Below is a 2025 Australian film that tries to do some...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom