It is hard not to revel in the paradox of We Sprout in Thy Soil We Sprout in Thy Soil, both at once humbled and uplifted by the sheer beauty of the work. David Arhlen manages to convey the emotional sense of a spiritual world in a stripped down simplicity displaying a raw and unafraid voice. The obvious fragile beauty and wide range of his voice, well wrought guitar phrasing and fastidiously clear full production all create a listening experience that may silence Richard Dawkins, if only momentarily. Often nowadays, with the plethora of ‘experimental electronicia’ and radical forms of music, it feels like being in the midst of a unending renaissance that it is only with the arising of a voice like Ahlen’s to remind us of the existence of other musical forms beyond the encapsulation of technological and structural.
That is often conceived as a thin limb on the tree to step out onto so perhaps another way into the album. To consider it as minimal acoustic guitar with a ‘miked-up’ resonance, as a warm backdrop to unfold the Hymnal poetics, vehicle for Ahlen’s vocal range. The clarity of the recording along with the subject matter may lead to the question of confusion of subject matter and presentation. ‘Alter’, presented with double bass and supporting vocals is a paean to spiritual content entering and forming the sense of a life, reflected in the precision and skill of the form of the music. ‘Ocean’ features a Spinet (harpsichord) as focal instrument, beyond Ahlen’s voice and the backup choral moments. Such touches as with “Stir our Hearts’ with the presence of the Uppsala Cathedral Boys Choir adding backing moves the song construction to a sense of reminiscence that locates back to the pivotal music ages of the Ars Nova and early Renaissance.
I must admit to be fully primed for the content of We Sprout in Thy Soil, other kind souls may view the world with a different light and may see the content as something other than a positive reading. However even if all the words merely described the electronic states of ADSL switches at telephone exchanges Ahlen’s singing and compositional skill could not fail in conveying a pure beauty and conviction.
Innerversitysound
*
