Reviews

The Little Unsaid
Album: Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier
Label: Carbon Moon
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.thelittleunsaid.com/

In 2019, I was lucky enough to review The Little Unsaid's album Atomise. By then, I'd already fallen across songs from Fisher King (2015) and Dig For The Promise (2013), but it was the Atomise album that put their flag firmly in my ground. Now I have the further pleasure of reviewing their new album, "Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier", and it's yet another step up. Released on 26th September, the album is born out of sessions in a studio on a Lightship moored on the River Thames, and album has a warm and sophisticated edge to it. Don't disappoint yourself. Buy a copy!

Had The Little Unsaid existed in my '70s youth, their albums would have joined those of Pink Floyd, (early) Genesis, Yes, Tangerine Dream, and other progressive music stalwarts firmly under my arm. Badges of honour. Statements of allegiance. What makes The Little Unsaid so special amid the current proliferation of music creation, is that they've both forged and retained their own sound. Nobody else does this stuff. No other band embraces that mix of folk, progressive rock, electronica and hip hop, world music, and the occasional inference of rap in the lyric metering. It makes for an inclusive sound. Everyone is welcome.

"Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier" is the band's tenth anniversary album, and it would be remiss therefore to not include here a background to this fine collection of musicians. Led by prolifically brilliant composer and budding theatre maker John Patrick Elliott, the band has enjoyed stable membership. Each of the band of four are multi-disciplined musicians. Alison D'Souza is a violist for the London Contemporary Orchestra, and brings to the party a mix of classicism and electronica. Her playing reminds me of Shankar's playing on Peter Gabriel's Secret World Tour. Mariya Brachkova is a bassist, backing vocalist and synth master whose skills fill out the live songs with atmospheric subtlety, never too much but always just enough. Tim Heymerdinger fuses percussive intuition with a deft touch of electronica, with his low octave backing vocals being one of the distinguishing features of the band's music.

"Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier" properly broke into my world on a drive from here in Berwick to Morpeth, about an hour from here. I listened intently on the way down, and again on the way back. The music seemed to be at home in this beautiful rolling countryside. A match made in Heaven. Just as countryside like this can appear different in different weather, so too does the improvisation that underpins this album open different doors every time you listen. It's sonically gorgeous, wholly accessible, and impeccably crafted. This band should be a global force. The Little Unsaid, and only The Little Unsaid, can do what they do. John Elliott describes the album:

"The album is about frontiers - actual journeys we make crossing into some new landscape of our lives, a new chapter, but it's also about the frontiers within us that we have no choice but to cross if we want to move on. The songs are full of the necessary loss but also the potential for immense joy in saying goodbye to our old selves and growing beyond the way we once saw the world."

I won't attempt here to wax lyrical about each of the songs on "Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier" but I will pick out a few of my consistent personal favourites. The titles for all of the songs begin with the letter 'S', a percussive invitation if ever there was one! And whether from John Elliott's synth, vocal effects, or Tim Heymerdinger's pads and drums, the percussive subtlety of this album is one of its triumphs. "Strangers" opens the album, and from the first bars you know you're in for a treat. Alison D'Souza's perfectly placed viola weaves its way behind Elliott's vocal throughout but never feels intrusive. There's a vocal quality to her playing, and as the song develops Mariya Brachkova's high register backing vocal blends beautifully with Tim Heymerdinger's low register, with Elliott sandwiched comfortably between.

"Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier" is the longest song on the album and more than justifies its title billing. There's much more going on here than at first meets the ear. The more I listen to the blend of synths and viola electronics, the more I hear, and the more breathtaking the song becomes. For me it's a sonic masterpiece, and it took me a few listens to realise the importance of space in emphasising John Elliott's deeper than usual vocal delivery.

If a song ever summed up the meaning of an album, it might just be "Shadows Are Where The Truth Gets Told". It takes a leaving to realise an arrival, and to make the moving on a more comfortable place to be. This is the song where Heymerdinger's percussive intuition shines especially brightly. There's also a fabulous build to the song, which celebrate an arrival in a better place: "my illumination".

From the first to the last song, this album exudes quality. "Small Windows" closes this beautiful album. Opening with whispered vocal from Marya Brachkova. It creates a canvas of mystery, and maybe this song is best described as an awakening from something unknown into a known world? Every one of the band has an equal part in delivering the message through the most eloquent lyrics on the album. As an album "Stay Fragile All Across This Cold Frontier" is simply faultless.

The Little Unsaid are on tour in the UK from 1st to 11th October: eight dates spanning a geography from Exeter to Sheffield. Check the 'Live' tab on their website for opportunities to see them near you. If you haven't yet had the pleasure, I guarantee their performance will take your breath away. If you have, you will already know that.

John Reed

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