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Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Wingfield Reuter Sirkis - Lighthouse


I don’t see too much between The Stone House and Lighthouse which is released on the MoonJune label this year. I always consider them in my opinion to be both Volume One (The Stone House) and Volume Two (Lighthouse), but that’s just me. The album was recorded last year also in February at La Casa Murada Studios which is the same place The Stone House was recorded. Listening to Lighthouse, is like a flaming fire that grows rapidly intense ready to erupt at any second.

This one is different. Bassist Yaron Stavi is not on here, but it’s a trio. Which considers Mark Wingfield, Markus Reuter, and Asaf Sirkis. This isn’t just a Jazz album, but more of a futuristic approach of the Progressive Rock genre with a Post-Rock vibe of the 22nd century set in a Blade Runner-sque dystopian wasteland. For me, this is another fresh intensive release I’ve listened to.

The moment when I put my headphones on, I knew I was about to embark on something quite mysterious and hypnotic right from the notes that Wingfield and Reuter do. I got to give MoonJune Records a huge amount of credit for making me discover these amazing musicians. Mark working with Yaron on Proof of Light, and him working with Kevin Kastning while Markus with Stick Men and Sonar, Lighthouse is album that will make you look at a crystal ball to see what the 22nd century will look like.

When you listen to the 14-minute epic Ghost Light, you can imagine the ambient/atmosphere approaches of a deserted hotel that is in complete rubble. Markus’ touch guitar creates these chilling moments of someone lurking behind the hotel that were once beautiful turned into ashes. You can hear echoes of Klaus Schulze’s Irrlicht and King Crimson’s THRAK coming to mind.

Wingfield creates some of the most exotic landscapes on his guitar which have a Floydian tribe nearing the end of a shuttle ready to head back to Rick Deckard’s apartment. Now Asaf Sirkis’ drumming like a running man going across the landscape creating these intense grooves of a striking powder keg waiting to explode at any second with Magnetic.

He can go through those doors one-by-one with his drum kit as they open frantically to allow him to go in by welcoming him with open arms and go beyond the kit. The opener, Zinc begins by going into a travel towards the Sahara desert as the music goes into a middle-eastern King Crimson Red-era vibe thanks to both Wingfield and Reuter’s dooming notes and leading towards the dangerous tombs and seeing what lies ahead.

But I love how Wingfield creates a discovery on his guitar to letting the listener know that while all hope is lost, there is a chance of surviving. He’s making the instrument fight back tears on A Hand in the Dark. Mark is very good at this. He creates this scenery which is mysterious and spooky at the same time and the issue of a struggle to be free is a challenge.

Then, there is this chaotic tension in the last 3-minutes of the composition as he and Asaf blend in to getting out of the deep dark caves in the river and hoping to be back on the surface and for the first time seeing a full bright sun to come. This has been my second time listening to Lighthouse.

And I have to say I was very impressed from the pieces that the trio did. Wingfield, Reuter, and Sirkis brought some amazing and incredible yet haunting melodies and improvisations that is on here. It’s intense, in your face, chilling, and a dangerous adventure that shows that this experience can be worth exploring, but with a gigantic challenge to be prepared for. And it's not going to be easy.

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