All We’re Made Of Is Borrowed
Redshift, 2023
8/10
Listen to All We’re Made Of Is Borrowed
The duo of An Laurence and Kim Farris-Manning, as Paramorph Collective they embrace ensemble, band and chamber sensibilities, and these 9 tracks recruit experimental, ambient and spoken word artistry to the affair.
“Elegy” opens the listen with soft singing and warm classical guitar that showcases text from Alex Poch Goldin with much beauty, and “All we’re made of is borrowed” follows with delicate piano and poetic storytelling that uses both tense and bare moments with a subtle power.
Halfway through, “Still holding” employs classical guitar, synth and voices with a distinct, mysterious mood of eloquent songwriting, while “Fruiting bodies” presents electric guitar, custom organ and synth for the atypical droning that radiates feedback and timbre in an unconventional fashion.
Arriving near the end, “Though and Desire” showcases the fluid, sometimes rumbling keys amid the sublime singing of the album’s best, and “as medicine” exits with a highly creative, cinematic appeal of technical sound manipulation.
A listen that’s often peaceful and touches on healing, this is a luminous debut, where Rodney Sharman, Margot George, Linda Caitlin Smith and the Paramorph Collective’s songwriting is minimal in an iconoclastic sort of way that lends itself to both haunting and pensive bouts.
Travels well with: Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet- Metamorphosis; Christopher Whitley- Describe Yourself