Philip Ekström of The Mary Onettes is dropping a solo album on Friday. While the material is atmospheric, given that it is based upon leftovers from a film score, it's also richly evocative music that stands entirely on its own. Trustblood, out on Friday via Welfare Sounds, is different from the tunes of The Mary Onettes but not so different that long-time fans will be alienated.
The title cut is expansive but bleak, while "Play Me Seldom Chords" is warm and more obviously tuneful. Ekström's vocals on this one and others makes up the centerpiece of these compositions but his voice feels like it's coming from a million miles away. That effect is pronounced on "Sparks of an End", one of the most beautiful tracks here, even as "Exile to Magic" makes for a nice runner-up. These compositions are sparse and elegant, and elegiac, while others, like "Golden" and "Devotion", add light rhythmic elements to the limited palette here. So much of Trustblood works on a simple level, and one sort of sinks into the album as a whole, even as lots of the songs sort of strike a very, very similar vibe.
Trustblood is out on Friday via Welfare Sounds.
More details on Philip Ekström via the official website for The Mary Onettes.
[Photo: H. Moon]