Stuart Sweeney says he spends much of his time roaming the local Northampton countryside, gathering both inspiration and field recordings. And while there is indeed much English pastoral pleasure to be had in his swelling soundscapes, like all good ”local” music, it is universal in ambition and appeal.
His debut collection opens with a gentle sweep. Many of the twelve, computer-generated pieces have a breadth and acoustic quality reminiscent of a symphony orchestra. Despite the depth of field, they do not make the listener feel small, but rather at the centre of things, as one would be with a panoramic view over the heath from atop a hill on a clear day. His palette is dabbed with restrained colours, flaxen, rusty, restful to the eye rather than dazzling.
”Impressions of a Golden Age” is thickly-textured and looped, seemingly borne on a strong northern wind. ”Ascension” opens like the heavens in a Hollywood biblical epic before a crash of cymbals tears the air open for a dramatic, almost melodramatic angelic chorus. I said almost; Sweeney always exercises laudable restraint.
”Gold and Red” could be heard as a deliberately stilted deconstruction of Aaron Copeland´s ”Hoedown”, while the strings lurching slightly out of phase on ”A Time of Change” nod to early Steve Reich tape-delay pieces.
Sweeney is also a dab hand with the just-right small gesture and detailed handcraft. A lone bassoon wanders unobtrusively through ”The Fire Within” that briefly flickers. Because of its acoustic properties, ”Memories Lost” sounds almost like an old recording of some violin virtuouso and segues nicely into ”Talinn (Excerpt)”, a short, leisurely stroll through a summer garden. My only objection is the foley insertion of a gate being opened and footsteps being taken. Too literal for an otherwise so suggestive piece.
He also travels abroad to Japan for the delicate ”Kaiya-Shiki”, one great, big windchime that Sweeney seems to love as much as I do, as he allows to tinkle longer than any other track. The elegiac finale, ”Cherry Blossom Falls”, is spookily precient given recent tragic events, a sorrowful string quartet which both grieves and eases the heart.
Sonomu