Project Description

GENGAHR

‘Where Wilderness Grows’

(Album Review)

Reviewer: Ashley Flockhart

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You’re asleep by 10:30 if you’re lucky enough to be a deep sleeper. If you’re a light sleeper, maybe the songs to set the mood is Gengahr’s Where Wilderness Grows.
The bands debut album is easy listening.

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I’ll be the first reviewer to admit that I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics. The sounds are so emotional and soothing that it’s as if there is a spirit at work in the instruments. Each note, chord, ring, pitch, is apart of some elegant musical mosaic.
Before Sunrise reminded me of a song by Maps called Valium in the Sunshine, which is apt considering the opening song is like being offered a chill pill. It’s an amalgamation of cymbals ringing and chiming, a brilliant pace of beat thanks to the Drummer Danny Ward, and I believe the cute little chink of a triangle was identified by my large ears.
John Victor, the guitarist, anchors the pathos of the song with simple guitar riffs that add a joyful layer to the song. The whole teamwork of the Quartet is very clever. The following songs, don’t have self-righteous solos or falsettos. Rather, instead, they are trim of extraneous musical tricks and difficult stunts. They are simple and sublime in the matter of being calm.

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I’ve read that they are classified as expansive indie rock. I would suggest they are rather the architects of cinematic intimacy with sound. Their songs don’t feel like rock, or even indie rock for that matter, especially since the first comparisons that leaped to mind when listening to them were artists such as Syd Matter and Sufjan Stevens.

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Apart from Carrion and the title song Where Wilderness Grows, each song has a continuously flat pitch with the addition of nuances with the bass guitar, guitar or drums. One clever utility of sound was the omit of it. In This is How You Love, the instruments would cease all at once, only the voice of Felix Bushe to guide our imaginations into a romantic space for a few seconds. This method isn’t special, but it speaks to the theme of how tender our minds are after being lonely for a long time.
While this merit may not sound defiantly original, the songs are sincere and imaginative.

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