Review: Seabuckthorn - A House With Too Much Fire

There is something rather beautiful about the sound of a guitar played well...I'm not talking about histrionic solos or brain melting shredding (although they are rather beautiful in their own way)...I'm talking about the understated splendour, the unadorned grandeur of playing a la Loren Connors or Dean McPhee. It is in this company that I would place Andy Cartwright’s Seabuckthorn project. For those who are not au fait with these names then you are in for a real treat. 'A House With Too Much Fire' is Cartwright's ninth release under the Seabuckthorn name and was influenced by the mountain terrain after relocating to the Southern Alps. It also sees some new elements added to his normal palette, namely banjo, clarinet & synthesizer. These merely accentuate Cartwright's skill and vision in using the guitar to create cinematic soundscapes and alluring vistas. The album is out on June 1st via the wonderful Bookmaker Records in collaboration with La Cordillère

Title track 'A House With Too Much Fire' opens the album and straight away we are thrown into a bucolic paradise with Cartwright's tremulous guitar rising and falling and backed with some sonorous drones and melancholic swathes of sound. It has an inherent feeling of suspense...that feeling you get when you know something is going to happen except it doesn't....it keeps you gripped and hanging on to the edge. 'Inner' has a rare thing..a beat, tribal in aspect and complementing the introspective guitar. There are more lush drones that weave in and amongst the beat / guitar combination and it is all rather beautiful. 'Disentangled' sees Cartwright wring some exotic, faltering Eastern motifs from his guitar...something almost flamenco, almost classical but when sitting atop more lovely drones it is lifted into that experimental/ambient bracket that many try and not many achieve...but Cartwright most assuredly does. 'It Was Aglow' sees the banjo make an appearance....not normally an instrument that one would associate with pastoral beauty but such is Cartwright's skill as both performer and composer that the instrument complements the delicate guitar picking. 'Blackout' is an absolute peach of a track...layer upon layer of bowed guitar drone and a slow and steady beat act as a bed on which languish flourishes of clarinet and flashes of guitar strums...it is incredibly immersive and has a power that belies the languid tempo. 'What The Shepherds Call Ghosts' sees Cartwright return to his neo-classical picking; this track really highlights what a superb guitarist this man is! The layering of guitar parts create a sonic tapestry of richness and tone and it all comes together to form a thing of exceptional allure. 'Submerged Past' initially feels like a 'regular' song but it grows and evolves into another masterclass in subtlety and charm - pretty much just guitar for the most part but as it progresses it becomes something more 'folky' with a vague hint of a beat and little cameos of echo and delay mix things up a bit..it is absolutely gorgeous...and paves the way for 'Somewhat Like Vision'. Another drone based track...the bowing of the guitar once again creating an alternate universe, one in which beauty is revered and material possessions are redundant...an idyll for which Cartwright is writing the score. 'Figure Afar' is a showcase of bowed guitar..the resonant drone it can produce is powerful yet refined and adds an otherwordly element to the music, one which is again utilised to great effect in album closer 'Sent In By The Cold' - a track with a sense of the melancholy and the tragic..like the telling of tales of shipwrecks and disaster. A suitably dramatic way in which to close a wonderful, wonderful record.

'A House With Too Much Fire' is a superb example of craftmanship - Cartwright's use of different techniques - bowing, fingerpicking & the use of slides - and all done adroitly, shows what a true master of his instrument he is. He creates atmospheres that evoke emotions in the listener, transporting them aloft on wings of texture and tonality. As with other great guitarists in this style..again I'm thinking of Loren Connors and Dean McPhee..it is what is left out that gives these tracks their power and impact; there are no unnecessary passages of showboating or superfluous grandstanding. Everything has its place and it is carefully, and sensitively, constructed and yet seems so spontaneously organic....seriously, this guy is a genius! 'A House With Too Much Fire' is out on June 1st and can be purchased via the Bookmaker Records webshop here in vinyl format or as a download from the Seabuckthorn Bandcamp page here. The vinyl can also be ordered via the La Cordillère site here.