Seasons
Nettwerk, 2022
8/10
The New Zealand native Graeme James plays a whole lot of instruments, and here he also produced this body work where violin, fiddle, guitar, mandolin and many other instruments are layered with help from friends on piano, horn, percussion and vocals.
James starts the listen with the warm banjo and introspective climate of “The Fool”, where his expressive and friendly vocals draw us into his poetic storytelling, and “A Sea Of Infinite Possibilities” follows with soft acoustic guitar and intimate singing in the sublime duet.
“The Angel Of St. George” occupies the halfway point, and benefits from stirring strings in the gorgeous folk song, while “Death Defying Acts” picks up the pace with quicker strumming and dreamy, wordless vocals in addition to James’ forthright approach.
Deeper yet, the piano makes an impression in the hypnotic “The Weight Of Many Winters”, where subtle strings and an impressive range from James is explored, and “No Memories Of Tomorrow” exits the listen with a subdued beauty that’s full of rich singing and mesmerizing acoustic guitar.
James is clearly a fan of names like Bon Iver, Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens, and those influences help shape this very mature, subtly rhythmic and sometimes mariachi flavored folk record that will sound as great 50 years from now as it does today.
Travels well with: Eddie Berman- Broken English; Birdtalker- One