Barren Harvest - Subtle Cruelties
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In Ian Chainey’s new releases wrap up for next week (which you haven’t read yet but I have, because I loaded it in this morning), he describes the new album by Barren Harvest as “darkly lit folk scenes.” That’s pretty accurate, but I’d like to expand upon that a bit.
Barren Harvest is a collaboration between Lenny Smith (Atriarch) and Jessica Way (Worm Ouroboros). Any familiarity with these bands might give you a glimpse of what Barren Harvest is like—Atriarch’s deep despondency, Worm Ouroboros’s mile-long snow drifts. Together, it’s as if the brightest shards of each come together into a mosaic that celebrates its cracks and crevices.
The mortar is their voices. And, of course, it’s not just beautiful ruin for the sake of beautiful ruin. The album’s title, Subtle Cruelties is lifted from a line from the first song that Way and Smith wrote together, “The Bleeding”, which in itself was inspired by a poem called “The Silent Articulation of a Face” by Rumi, the thirteenth century Persian poet. Throughout the album, the pair chant portions of the Tennyson epic “In Memoriam,” a meditation on loss and death, of love, of ideals, of hope. The whole album is a gorgeous ache.
Gone is Smith’s tearing-his-heart-out anguish. It’s been replaced by deep, slow intonations. Way’s voice whispers, floating above and around Smith’s baritone. Guitarist Way plays acoustically, shedding the dynamics of Worm Ouroboros for a delicate interplay of light and dark without descending into doom territory as their other bands do. There’s a little bit of synth and autoharp, which, along with the guitar, imparts a delicate complexity.
Smith and Way first met in 2010, and they began writing songs for Barren Harvest shortly after. They first released a demo in 2011, before finding a home at Handmade Birds, which will release Subtle Cruelties on March 25 (Preorder). The beautifully packaged album will be available on CD and LP with artwork by Kevin Gan Yuen and photography by Veleda Thorsson and Jessica Way. The LP is available in black and solid gold. The limited edition clear album with autumn leaves pressed into the vinyl is sold out.
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Listen to more Barren Harvest on SoundCloud
