Brave Timbers - For Every Day You Lost (2010)
Brave Timbers is the performing and recording alias of multi-instrumentalist Sarah Kemp. Having already worked with the likes of The Declining Winter and Fieldhead, this solo debut from Sarah sees her combine violin, tenor guitar and piano to create 11 contemporary classical compositions which in their entirety will also hold their own amongst the canons of great acoustic folk recordings.
From the album’s opening track ‘More Like Oak Than The Willow’ the elegance of this music is immediately apparent. The delicate plucking of guitar feels like an early dawn and the sounds that follow, including some of the warmest and most comforting string play thanks to Sarah’s violin, create a sense of the day coming to life. Indeed, the homely nature of this creation evokes images of farmyards and wildlife growing within a time lapse frame. In short, the opening track is the album’s genesis, and the proceeding tracks continue on this theme of nature, rural life and a general feel for a quintessentially British landscape.
Some tracks are filled with melancholy. Be it the calling between violin and piano on ‘All The Things You Couldn’t Say’ or the echoed violin battle on ‘I’ll Always Come Back To This Place.’ However, there is also an implicit sense optimism on tracks where the tenor guitar works in perfect tandem with the soothing glow of Sarah’s long bowing. On ‘Out With The Tide’ and title track ‘For Everyday You Lost’ the music creates images of small harbours, marinas, the innocence of local seaside trade and the wildlife that surrounds coastal regions. ‘Scotland, 1950’ fuses crackles of wireless recordings of nautical weather forecasts all of which go further to create a sense of life by the sea.
It is remarkable to consider that most of the music at work here is largely improvised. While some stemmed from premeditated ideas, the recordings were intended to have an organic, natural feel and there is no doubting this has been successfully captured here. Sometimes recalling the work of other artists like Rickard Jäverling, Motohiro Nakashima and Angelo Badalamenti’s score for ‘The Straight Story,’ ‘For Everyday You Lost’ is a musical gem. It is an album that should be enjoyed as the leaves lose their green and the trees eventually relinquish their presence. It will support listeners as the temperatures cool and the days shorten, but most of all it will last throughout all seasons for it is an album that one will never tire of and one that shall be cherished for years to come.
brave timbers - For Every Day You Lost from k craig on Vimeo.
