This material bares Glissando's trademark of ethereal voices and tip-toing piano melodies but the overall sound is richer and more expansive. Epic swells of strings and guitars sore above the drones and field recordings to create an intense yet fragile noise. The dynamics of the record are also apparent and through the use of an array of guests there is a new depth and ambition to Glissando that portrays the songs in their truest form. 'The World Without Us' moves slowly between dark shadows and into more hopeful territory throughout, it's not afraid to be silent when the moment arrives but it's also capable of enormous, echoing, choral and string crescendoes in one subtle movement.
Since Glissando's debut in 2008 Elly May Irving and Richard Knox have experimented with countless different live set-ups and members ranging from simple, more immediate shows as a duo through to a 7-piece group. Never tied to a specific ideal of how to play the material, it enabled the group to tour heavily for a couple of years in the UK and Europe whilst recording a follow-up album but inevitably this process took it toll. Knox began new projects; 'The Rustle of the Stars' (with Frederic D. Oberland of FareWell Poetry) and later A-Sun Amissa (which also features regular Glissando member Angela Chan) which weighed heavily on the amount of studio time he could commit to Glissando.
May 2012 saw the decision of Irving and Knox to finally complete the record they had been tentatively working on for four years and the final stages came together relatively quickly. Knox produced and pre-mixed the record in his own Cloud Blunt Moon studio in Leeds before heading to Paris to complete the final mixing session with Oberland at his Magnum Diva studio.
The material on 'The World Without Us' stretches back the full four years with the likes of The Long Lost and Of Silence which previously featured on a highly limited edition double-A-side single. The title track is also an older song which has been morphed and reworked over the years. The duo knew these songs were too strong to leave off the record and pushed to find ways of hitting the same standard with the newer tracks like 'Companion' which is almost Scott Walker-esque in the vocal delivery, marking a dynamic change in the way Irving is using her voice.
credits
released November 8, 2012
PERFORMERS:
Elly May Irving (voice, piano), Richard Knox (gtr, organ, drones, field recordings, piano, voice, drums), Angela Chan (cello, viola, violin, glockenspiel, erhu), Lidwine (voice, harp), Frederic D. Oberland (reed organ, harmonium, bells, space echo, bowed pantophone, fender rhodes)
Aaron Martin (cello, bowed banjo, bowl), Tim Hay (gtr, bass, voice), Paul Elam (gtr), Alistair Hay (drums)
"If Górecki had been on 4AD. If This Mortal Coil had covered Thee Silver Mount Zion. This latest Glissando offering is one of those rare occasions where music becomes a portal – a window to other times, other worlds, other lives." [sic] Magazine
"Elly May Irving and Richard Knox create an unmistakable sonic footprint on the release, the sounds have become more orchestral and dynamic, showing not only a furthering of Irving and Knox's skills as musicians over the years, but also their ability to adapt, and create records that refuse to slip into the ruts carved out by previous releases." Futuresequence
"Bubbling over with cinematic melancholy, Glissando’s first album in four years is a breathtakingly beautiful exploration of emotional collapse, as haunting as it is beguiling. Richard Knox’s compositions waver on the crest of complete emotional collapse, mournful piano dirges and spectral ambience punctuated by Elly May Irving’s sharp trills, her voice a distant echo of Jarboe’s racking falsetto, and the calm it conveys is almost suffocating in its honesty. Rather than simply pushing for crystalline beauty, there is a dark undercurrent here that lurks amongst grey drones that wrap and constrict, and at times the swelling of strings becomes a stretching and tearing that proves exquisitely uncomfortable. To call this an accomplished emotional effort would be to downplay its achievements; if given the opportunity to work their way under your skin, Glissando’s music is nothing short of heartbreaking." Rock-a-Rolla
"an immediate, engaging and compelling record that sucks you in and keeps you focused and alive from beginning to end. Glissando save the best for last with the simply stunning finale of Still (II) - a reaction to record opener Still (I) and one of the most sublime bits of song-writing this year." The Steinberg Principle
"There’s a twist in the music. Her voice is the sole survivor, thawing the icy hands with her warm vocal. She won! It is a victory for everlasting love – after all that has happened, and even surviving after we have gone. The final two minutes are her victory cry, but it is one that is ghosted with loss, too, hanging over her world like inflicted, invisible scars. She survived, but the world did not. The surface is just as lifeless as the cloudy sky. Even the flaming sun loses all colour. An ending. A world, without us." Fluid Radio
"‘The World Without Us’ is an album to ponder, to explore and to completely immerse oneself in." Whisperin & Hollerin
"‘The World Without Us’ is an artistic triumph where each note has clearly been carefully considered. Spiritually and musically it belongs in the same niche as Dead Can Dance or Mark Hollis for it’s a record which disobeys the conventions of verses and choruses and inhabits its own peculiar world." Leonard's Lair
Richard Knox is a musician and artist living and working in the North-West of the UK. Currently writing and touring as A-
Sun Amissa and Of Thread & Mist, he is also a founding member of The Eternal Return Arkestra, The Rustle of the Stars and Glissando and a member of Shield Patterns....more
supported by 6 fans who also own “The World Without Us”
Was into Mogwai from the beginning with the pivotal Ten Rapid and 4 Satin, but the last Mogwai LP I bought was Mr Beast in 2006, so plenty new to me here, and lots of catching up to do! On 2018 Live, the last 4 tracks are where I'm at, I just love all of that feedback and distortion. From my collection of their first decade, the epic 20 minute My Father My King is my all time favourite - I have no idea if their releases after 2006 have yielded anything comparable... only one way to find out!... Master of Alchemy
supported by 5 fans who also own “The World Without Us”
Post rock from Japan. Often gentle and beautiful but not without genre typical build-ups.
As a plus, the flac comes in shiny, audiophile 96/24 format :-) Carsten Pieper
supported by 4 fans who also own “The World Without Us”
this album really is such a emotional hit, you can feel the pain behind it and it really makes you just want to lay in bed, turn all the lights off and just say "damn, where iam i going in life?" black_metal_femboy
supported by 4 fans who also own “The World Without Us”
Like the winter landscape of the cover, this black metal group are less about bludgeon and speed, and more about stark, frozen atmosphere - no better exemplified than in the melancholy beauty of opener "Cold".
None's sound reminds me a little of Taake, but the ambient synth parts could have come out of a lot of 90s era television shows that were horror or thriller based. A terrific debut. nightskald