News / / 02.04.13

MIRRORING / LOST HARBOURS

Yard Theatre, London | March 27th

Practice Architecture’s Yard Theatre is a fitting venue for this show; originally a pop-up arts space (now permanent), its atmospheric appeal lies in the venue’s skeletal and exposed layout, thoughtfully constructed and immersive in its purpose whilst still being a fascinating structure in its own right. It’s an inspired locale for Upset the Rhythm to pick for Mirroring’s first London appearance; crucially, here, the acoustics are particularly wonderful. 

Southend’s Lost Harbours are a more than appropriate opener, plying a faintly monotonous line in pastoral ambience. Despite the extensive range of audible genre elementsfrom revivalist folk-rock tropes through to eerie Richard Skelton-esque acoustic dronesthe duo’s sound is most comparable, simultaneously, to Brad Rose’s North Sea project (albeit the hazy Americana of the much underrated Exquisite Idols record rather his more harrowing forays into enveloping sheet noise), the more austere passages of Sun Kil Moon’s classical guitar-inflected Admiral Fell Promises, and Steve Malley’s incredible work under his Horse Loom guise. This, clearly, is a good thing, and Lost Harbours’ compounding hints at the careful mining of a seam of modern-traditional, past-facing music generally untapped to great effect. Unfortunately, the pair fail to wholly harness the constituent elements of their sound, and the set overall feels somewhat atonal, and not a little po-faced despite the light-Pagan appeal of the headwear on show.

Atmospherically lit by a single candle (as well as the subtly dimmed house lights, natch), Mirrorring display a terse, considered and melodically dense approach to songcraft which borders on the sublime. Comprising Liz Harris and Jesy Fortino – of Grouper and Tiny Vipers fame, respectively –the collaborative project is overwhelmingly reminiscent of the former’s signature works. As Grouper, Harris is arguably the key longstanding proponent of this particularly woodsy strain of folk/drone, largely due to the success of the stone-cold genre classic Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, which represented as close to a conventionally ‘pop’ strain of songwriting she has yet approached, and on first approach the most comparable overall to her work in Mirrorring.

On deeper listening, though, it is easier to draw denser sonic parallels with the more recent AIA set of records, comprising, as they do, the same vein of lushly expansive ethereal swirl and soundscapes (though embracing a more distinct employment of looping patterns reminding particularly of Basinski’s sixth Disintegration piece) drawn from buried field recordings, heavily reverbed guitar and circular Wurlitzer piano lines. The latter is employed to great effect on the set-closing Mirror of Our Sleeping; the actual melodic line oddly elative, though in the form of a skewed attic music box sense rather than the chilly, climactic sonority of Grouper’s Vapor Trails and similar.

Harris’s vocals are even less lyrically discernible live than on record, as exemplified in the gorgeous Fell Sound (it should be noted here that the album is, I think, played in complete order here), making Fortino’s sparser contribution a particular effective foil to the minor-key fog bank.

Hers is noticeably the more straightforward role, her vocals and guitar work reminiscent of more conventional American songwriters (the Joni Mitchell comparisons aren’t completely inappropriate), but the results are no less affecting for it. Though the pair split the fore over alternate tracks through the short set, it feels cohesive and resolute, songs seamlessly smearing into each other. At just over 40 minutes, Mirroring concisely displays two idiosyncratic artists finely honing their considerable skills, if not necessarily performing to the peak of them.

 

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soundcloud.com/mirroring

Words: Tom Howells

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