World off, music on.
We all need those moments when we shut off the lights, turn up the volume and we completely forget the world around us. Well, those moments, require a special music, the one that Olan Mill is able to produce and that enchants me each time I listen to it. I’m a fan of Olan Mill since I heard Paths, his second album (Facture 2012) but, I do confess, only last year I discovered that Olan Mill is a solo project of a man not named Olan Mill! So, for those of you that don’t know it yet, Olan Mill is a project name for the Englishman Alex Smalley that has been composing and releasing music since 2010 when he established his name in the music scene with his first album, Pine. Now the Preservation label presents Hiraeth, the fourth album from Hampshire’s Olan Mill and I’ve no doubt that those of you who are familiar with his sound will fall in love with it. Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct translation in English and it’s defined as "homesickness" for a home to which you cannot return. And the album is a beautiful meditation fulfilled by a melancholic sense of loss.
Hiraeth is a narrative sound of five songs for a total time of approximately 40 minutes. The dreaming journey starts with ‘Neutrino’ that is a soft lullaby made up of fractals of echo-drenched synths. It has a mesh of exquisite, competing melodies and wonderful echoing vocals and it’s one of the loveliest things the British artist has ever done.
‘Echo of Tomorrow’ is an incredible picture. Starting with the sound of a warm rain in a bunch of seconds turns into a lovely light that is so intimate and deep that you’ll feel that rain and the sun just after it warming your body. It’s a short track but so damn beautiful. Behind each track of Olan Mill lies a story enveloped in some deeper emotion transporting the listener into their inner world or to their dreaming places.
With ‘Cultivator’ Alex Smalley gave birth to so much magic on his keyboards that is impossible not to fall in love with it. The sense of loss and the melancholy is in each note of it and this is not a bad thing at all. It’s like floating in a light blue ocean and, even when the music ends, the listener somehow intuits that the music is still continuing somewhere, as constant as the tide. The piano notes at the end of ‘Cultivator’ are simply stunning.
The intro of ‘Nature For Equal Rights’ transmits to me am intense sense of tension and when the piano notes appear is the best thing can happens. It will move you more than you could hope to expect. The several moments of the song make it like if it was more songs in a unique composition. Intimacy is the key player here.
‘Soft Furnishings’ concludes the magical journey of Hiraeth and it is as calming as still waters. The echoing in the distance vocals seem raising you and you’ll feel weightless. It conjures up an atmosphere of intimacy that offers an undeniable solace and refuge if you're looking for such things.
Hiraeth is full of evocative light and space encouraging its audience to indulge in mental journeys of their own and it may just be one of the best musical experiences you could encounter.
