By: Gareth Watkin
Grouper | website |
Released on October 31, 2014 via Kranky Records
Musician and composer Liz Harris, better known as her moniker Grouper, offers up her latest solo album on Kranky records titled ‘Ruins’. The new album sees Harris at her most delicate and most intimate, showing an incredible dedication to the crafting of the music itself. The whole record seems to step away from the more ambient driven albums previously offered by Harris, instead focusing much more on classical piano compositions and personal lyrical themes. Harris’ latest effort comes across as an incredibly strong album effort, one that showcases Harris’ creative talents at their absolute best.
‘Ruins’ could perhaps be Harris’ greatest masterpiece in her musical career thus far, presenting an incredibly harrowing and introspective album experience, showcasing a great many things from Harris herself. Much of the album feels incredibly sparse and almost empty, but to use the notion implies that there’s nothing really happening, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Every note feels delicately crafted and carefully placed in order to present an incredibly stripped down and bare impression of Liz Harris herself. For the most part, it’s rather unconventional in terms of the structure of the tracks and how they’re presented, though the music itself comes across as nothing less than beautiful.
The very sparse and somewhat empty nature of ‘Ruins’, combined with the incredible harrowing and dark nature of the music itself makes the whole album experience one that is somewhat hard to easily get involved with. It’s inaccessible to an extent, which forms a challenge for unwary listeners. It’s incredibly interesting, though, the kind of effect ‘Ruins’ has as an album experience. One can simply play the entire album and let it occupy the background, letting the gentle piano notes and airy vocals wash over, whilst others can sit down and intently listen to each and every detail, finding great enjoyment in the crafting of the album itself.
Although ‘Ruins’ is a rather unconventional album in many senses, it is one that dares to stay true to itself, and not let the delicate beauty of the songs become ruined with over-production and unnecessary elements. At its most basic level, ‘Ruins’ is Liz Harris baring her soul through soft piano music. Harris has certainly created something truly beautiful here, and one where the beauty is very easy to find. It’s perhaps one of the best efforts from this incredibly talented artist, and a release that we can only hope forms the basis of future releases from Harris.
