An interesting combination here: the drone masters of Troum meet the poetic bard Martyn Bates. Together they deliver six tracks, which were produced in mail collaboration in 2004/2005. The album contains just under 40 minutes of music and is released by Transgredient, a daughter of Drone Records. To a Child Dancing in the Wind is the title of a famous poem by W. B. Yeats, who inspired these recordings.

Troum builds layer upon layer with loops, string instruments, percussion, accordion and choirs. Bates contributes harmonica and melodica and of course his peculiar voice, which adds an extra emotional level to the music. The end result is harmonic and organic, with dreamlike qualities.

The different sound sources are surprisingly well balanced and the voice of Bates is no strange intruder in the music. My favourite piece is an instrumental one though: the final track ‘Mad reprise, a lovely hypnotic creation where the ongoing ambient layers nicely mix with the flowing sounds of the free-reed instruments.

Author: HD. Published on: Wednesday, October 18th, 2006.
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