The Declining Winter

The Declining Winter
Scenes from the back bedroom window EP
[Secret Furry Hole,2010]

"with 'scenes from the back bedroom window' i was trying to make something a little more minimal with long stretched out notes. i wanted the whole thing to sound a little like it was underwater. it was recorded in the depths of winter with snowstorms so bad i had to walk six miles to get to work. i hope some of that feeling of detachment and isolation comes across in the music."

Melancholic, resolutely Northern, and exuding a warm familiarity, Richard’s music has always sounded like an extension of that produced during his Hood days, albeit with an idiosyncratic twist.
This EP, then, marks an interesting point in The Declining Winter’s development as a project. Whereas previous releases have concentrated on establishing a solid and fairly traditional “band” sound, “Scenes from the Back Bedroom Window” appears to be an endeavour to blur this template and create something which, whilst maintaining continuity with the already laid foundations, exhibits a qualitatively different character.

Seemingly influenced by bandmate Paul Elam’s Fieldhead project, “Scenes from the Back Bedroom Window” has a deep, near ambient, textural feel to it. Opener “Leave” could easily have featured on Fieldhead’s recent “Riser” EP.  Organ chords, granulated vocals, and judiciously applied reverbs combine to form a slow burning, steady state piece – elemental and commanding, this is a far cry from anything released under the Declining Winter moniker thus far.


THE DECLINING WINTER/KILLER from giacomo belletti on Vimeo.