A SKY RECORD [LP] (BLUE VINYL)

oWith its meditative tempos and enveloping guitar work by Michio KuriharauaeitAEs like this golden net,AE Naomi said of his gorgeous, versatile playinguA Sky Record offers shelter from the squall. If it has the glow of a long-delayed reunion between friends, thatAEs not accidental: Kurihara hasnAEt traveled outside of Japan in some time, so Damon and Naomi hadnAEt recorded with him in nearly ten years. When they finally made it back to Japan in November 2019 for a brief tour, they were elated to book some time with Kurihara at the aptly named studio Peace Music. oIn those long stretches of quarantime, the tracks they returned from Japan with had distinct moods but not yet any lyrics. (Kurihara works best when trying to conjure a specific feeling or natural imageuafter all, he did once make a solo record, Sunset Notes, on which every song was based on a different sunset heAEd witnessed...) How to write about the pandemic' How to not write about the pandemic' Naomi first struck upon the appropriate tone when re-reading the journals of one of her favorite abstract painters, Charles Burchfield. She arranged this found language into the lyrics of the iridescent aeSeason Without Time,AE which also became a tribute to a friend that she and Damon had lost in the last year. oFrom there, the floodgates opened. The wistful and watery aeMidnightAE (electrified, towards the end, by the slow screams of a Kurihara solo) conjures NaomiAEs nostalgia for youthful summers spent at Jones Beach, while the gentle current of aeSailing ByAE pays homage to those ritualistic BBC Shipping Forecasts and the waltzing, quintessentially British theme song from which it takes its name.o uLindsay Zoladz. oBack to make all your folk-pop dreams melt into the sunset.o uRolling Stone'