Camera Obscura
United Bible Studies : The Jonah (IR,2008)***
United Bible Studies are a come and go ensemble with many brilliant moments on their previous, mostly cdr releases. The style was not always the same, but often a folk style inspiration shone through a often more experimental and rather improvised nature. Players for this release are Caroline Coffey, David Colohan, Paul Condon, Shane Cullinane, Scott McLauglin, Richard Moult, Séan Óg, Ivan Pawle, Gavin Prior, James Rider, Richard Skelton, Enda Strautt and singers Alison O’Donnel and Sharron Kraus. Even with so many people participating I have the impression that within a wider range of expressions, one of the male vocalists, Gavin Brior (?) takes the lead in ideas in more of the tracks combining a folk flavour or a partly folk inspiration with also a rather darker nature this time.
On “The Swallowing”, Richard Moult succeeds in recreating, while reciting poetry and playing high note keyboards with rushing wind sounds, a Current 93-like mood to open the score. The title track after this is a reference to James Herbert novel about the story of Jonah, a cursed man who brings bad luck everywhere. This long track has many sections and elements, from guitar and harp pickings with tremblings strings and violin to the swelling of a deep bass sound, a more experimental movement with some noises, then song parts and sad keyboard elements, as fuzz bass, and also one, extraordinary and different section with a deformed voice as if it is created like a sort of dark/heavy metal voice, with a windy noise-over effect, with distorted bass, and wild avant-garde guitar like Heino (!!) more in the background. Also on the last track this sort of avant-gardene of guitar playing is added, as a last improvisation onto a sad song with wrongly tuning of violin. Then on “A for Andromeda” we hear some analogue synths, combined with pickings. On “Veil song” these analogue synths, flute-like for some part, add strangely enough successfully its own sort of acidfolkishness. Some of the shorter ideas sound like inspired flashes, of inspirations that happened, just like the coming and going of the wind or its members with their ideas. Some folk songs were especially picked out for Sharron Kraus' presence who toured and now also recorded for a short while with the band. “The Lowland of Holland” was sung by her, with backing vocals by Alison O'Donnell.
This might be one of the more weird releases of the band, but shows a good range of their expressive possibilities.
