David Ian Roberts: From The Harbour
Cambrian Records
Uncut called David Ian Roberts' 2019 release Travelling Bright “a quietly exceptional album,” and the evidence at hand suggests much the same could be said of its follow-up (digital, with a limited-edition LP version in the works). Though From The Harbour has the polish of a studio recording, Roberts created it at his Cardiff home earlier this year during lockdown. The release developed from guitar sketches collected during the winter, with lyrics following and finished by April. Given the circumstances, the songs' arrangements were dictated by the instruments he had in his house—guitars (acoustic, electric, twelve-string), piano, cello, bass, and percussion—but in no way does the result sound lacking. Not only does he play everything on the album, he created the colourful abstract landscape on the cover too.
In many ways, the production process proved therapeutic for Roberts, who's disclosed that the newly restricted lifestyle the pandemic forced upon him generated material that not only served as a creative outlet but provided a respite from the oppressive gloom of the news cycle. Stylistically, the material is dreamy folk that, despite its having been hermetically created, conveys an outdoorsy, pastoral feel. One imagines Roberts might have been compensating for being inside by projecting himself creatively into the natural world beyond his front door. That likewise proves to be the album's overriding theme, which has to do with fondly recalling the world as it used to be and longing for its return.
One of the first things one notices is how polished it is. The songs are meticulously crafted and the vocals anything but ragged. Roberts possesses a smooth, clear voice that complements his instrumental backings wonderfully, and sometimes he multi-tracks his singing to enrich an arrangement with harmonies. However strange it might sound, his voice in a few songs sounds a bit reminiscent of a less dramatic Robin Gibb, during “Walker,” for example. The sweetly lilting ballad “Levitate” also features singing that doesn't sound light years removed from the one famously gracing “I Started a Joke.”
The playing's always tasteful, and Roberts exercises sound judgment in determining the right number of sounds a song should have. The opening “Slow Burn,” for example, judiciously augments vocals, acoustic guitars, and piano with an electric guitar solo, the latter itself pitched at just the right dynamic level, to achieve a satisfying balance. Reflecting the homemade aspect of the recording, “Distant Planets” weaves a dusty piano into a starry-eyed instrumental otherwise dominated by raw electric soloing. Some of the more spacious songs, “Now or Never” a good example, exude a mystical, even slightly trippy quality that hints at Eastern flavourings. To their creator's credit, the songs are clothed in elaborate garb without being excessively ornate. Given the arrangements Roberts favours and the emphasis on vocal-based pieces, From The Harbour locates itself within the singer-songwriter UK folk tradition associated with figures such as Nick Drake and John Martyn. Like its predecessor, it invites that “quietly exceptional” label.September 2020