The delightful chamber-jazz-pop pair is back with their third album. It does seem yesterday when they published Thought You Knew, but actually three years have passed since then – I guess at least one doesn’t count in there.
Jazz has been quietly on the rise in the independent scene in the latest years, but not so markedly in the folk scene. Lauren Kinsella and Chris Hyson have managed to blend together, indeed, all the different aspects of this specific genre with contemporary folk, without sounding pretentious, ever.
On Thought you Knew, their last album songs were packed full of melodies, embedded in the misty, magical ambience created by the unobtrusive sax and strings and, obviously, by Kinsella’s delicate and warm voice.
In Wait for Me, truth be said, there is considerably less of that. The record indulges in changing innerscapes, in the guise of an improvised performance, rather than in structured songwriting (“Wool Cotton Lace & Snow”). Of course this might be a plus for some listeners, there is no dispute on that – just be prepared for a considerably more difficult listen than what you are used to with Snowpoet. It’s obviously not album without appeal, as some songs drift evocatively into Bjork’s lands (“Sky Thinking”, “Roots”), or even electro pop (“With You”), or drone music (“Tiers”), but multiple listens reveal what an absorbing album it is.
Overall, the characteristic lightness of Snowpoet’s music emerges here and there (the beautiful “Burn Bright”, the thoughtful spoken word in “Floating Practice”) and this is obviously far from being a ‘difficult’ album. It’s just one that needs a little time and patience for it to fully reveal itself
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