Snow Ghosts announce second album, share new music
Announcing our first second album on Houndstooth! That is, the first of our artists to release a second album on the label is... Snow Ghosts! - who follow up 2013's 'A Small Murmuration' with 'A Wrecking'. Ross Tones (aka Throwing Snow) and Hannah Cartwright (Augustus Ghost) are now joined by a third member, multi-instrumentalist Oliver Knowles (EXES) to pool their individual inspirations, ideas and styles under the moniker of Snow Ghosts.
Less focused on rhythm and more on melody and instrumentation, “A Wrecking” ebbs and flows to mirror the vocal meanings; the guitars reflect the sea with panning and reverb effects while a haunting electric violin slips in and out of the record’s consciousness.
The addition of Knowles has added significant depth to the music, “We write a lot more fluidly now, and most of this album has been written together, on location. We all bring ideas to the table, but having another song-writing brain means these are then transformed into something completely unique. It adds another dimension to the album, both instrumentally (because we are yet to find an instrument that Oli doesn’t play) and to the entire writing process itself. It feels a lot more complete than the first album, more rounded.”
The context of location is one of the most important themes on “A Wrecking”, which was recorded on location at a cottage in Dorset, in a deserted bank vault, St Catherine’s Chapel in the village of Abbotsbury and Nowhere Man rehearsal space in Brighton. These acoustic spaces have been captured by binaural recording techniques which give the music a natural 3D-like depth of sound. Audiophiles will want to experience the album through a pair of headphones - at this close range the sense of movement on “A Wrecking” truly becomes visceral and alive.
Snow Ghosts also point to the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi as inspiration, the notion that there is beauty in slightest of imperfections. These imperfections are best heard recorded in acoustic spaces with the technological wizardry of binaural mics, and are an intrinsic part of the sound of “A Wrecking”; the band say these spaces are “like our fourth member.”
“A Wrecking” has an undeniably strong nautical theme running throughout, motivated in part by one of the primary writing and recording locations in Dorset. The album begins with a field recording of Chesil Beach; legend has it that sailors would know where they had come ashore on this 18 mile stretch of beach by the size of the pebbles, which gradually get smaller towards the North-West end of the beach. This area is well known for smuggling and the wrecking of ships, manifesting itself in the at times violently destructive instrumentation of the album. Lyrically “A Wrecking” explores all the meanings of the word ‘wreck’ - whether this be a ship, a person, a state of being or a relationship.
Listen to the first track to be taken from the album, 'Bowline', below. According to The FADER, who have the premiere, it flows "from bristling and delicate to surging and brittle in its narrative." You can download the track straight away when you pre-order the album from iTunes. 'A Wrecking' is also available to pre-order on LP & CD from the Houndstooth store (where you'll get free WAVs upon release, when you order the album on vinyl).