A Few Scattered Hours

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Cat No: SL041

Release Date: 16 October 2020

Label: Second Language

Packaging Type: Digipak

No of Units: 2

Barcode: 5052442018650

Genres: Indie Alternative

Description
4th album of uniquely dulcimer-led instrumental post-rock from Anglo/American/Australian collective, Memory Drawings, featuring members of Hood/The Declining Winter, Brave Timbers and Tangents. With limited edition bonus disc of remixes and reworks by, amongst others, Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance, Insides, Giulio Aldinucci and Cedric Pin/Glen Johnson (ex-Piano Magic).

Anglo/American/Australian collective Memory Drawings unknowingly began work on its fourth album, A Few Scattered Hours, during its spring 2018 tour of the UK and Spain, even if a majority of the tracks weren't written until Joel Hanson returned to the US with a hammered dulcimer that he had left under bandmate (former Hood founder) Richard Adams' guest room bed for the previous decade.

Nevertheless, the concept of the record began to take shape long before these 11 tracks were finished. Due to time constraints and the vast geographical distance between band members, Memory Drawings has always written music in short bursts of creativity, whenever a few scattered hours were available for Joel and Richard to make music in the same room together. However, the record title is also an indirect indictment of life in early 21st-century, neo-liberal America, where increasing numbers of people are consumed by the relentless necessity of fulfilling economic imperatives, leaving fewer and fewer hours to focus on the spiritual/artistic pursuits that make life worth living. A Few Scattered Hours is the band's sonic antidote to this loss of personal autonomy, a reminder that other worlds - more compassionate and beautiful - are still possible.

In addition to Memory Drawings mainstays Richard Adams (Hood/The Declining Winter/Western Edges), Sarah Kemp (Brave Timbers), and Gareth S Brown (Hood), Joel reached out to a larger group of musicians, mostly old friends and former bandmates from his hometown of Minneapolis - Joel Smith, Tim Ritter, Craig Grossman, and Mykl Westbrooks - in addition to cellist Peter Hollo (Tangents/FourPlay String Quartet) and viola-player Jessy Greene (Pink/Foo Fighters) to help shape the record in their own unique ways. The result is the band's most dense, song-oriented and percussion-heavy record to date. "The Same Indifference" immediately suggests this is a bolder take on Memory Drawings unique dulcimer-driven sound - with a dubby bass line, pounding percussion and layers of guitar effects - that is as dark and evocative as any Dead Can Dance composition. Sarah Kemp's violin meanwhile dominates "This Never Happened," which builds to an intoxicating kraut-like repetition through it's pulsating middle section. Although the darkness of this album reflects current world events, Memory Drawings haven't forgotten how to be pretty. "Early Summer Separation" defines their sun-dappled, percussive sound as layers of hammered dulcimer blend with strings, acoustic guitar, and splashing drums that are an uplifting example of the band at its best. Jessy Greene's viola on "The Right to Be Forgotten" is reminiscent of the arresting beauty of "Time for Something More" (from The Nearest Exit). Though the hammered dulcimer is Memory Drawings' main weapon, the instances when it is left out have nevertheless produced some of the band's most compelling music to date. On the elegiac "Trace Elements of Humility," Peter Hollo's cello recalls the weeping cascades of This Mortal Coil's Martin McGarrick and the majestic title track is a slow-burning sweep of neo-classical rock music that layers cinematic strings for an exuberant end to an album so engaging, poignant, and life-affirming that it can erase weeks of disappointment, disquiet, and despair in the span of 40 minutes.
Tracklisting