Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If there is something that binds us all at some point in our lives, it is the feeling of the fractured nature of society, the self, or our place within the two. The distressed nightmare that few will ever admit to for fear of seeming weak when in truth they are the most courageous of all, for they at least admit that life at times is nothing more than a cosmic joke played out on a poker table that has been tilted and stacked against their favour.
For Rick Senley’s latest avent-garde album under the banner of Music For Voyeurs, The Curtains Are Opening, the soundscapes of a man comfortable with placing you under the illusion of time being tempered but with the added exciting danger that roots you to the spot as the noise of a thousand distorted voices filters through and places the dichotomy of anxious concern and cerebral beauty before you in equal stunning measure.
The delicate nature of a piano, the sensual nature of a guitar, the troubled refrain from a trumpet and samples from a mixture of thoughts and devices all come together to make The Curtain Are Opening a selection of music that really opens up the senses and unlocks the window on the world around us.
Like the previous album by Music For Voyeurs, The Curtains Are Opening is to drift off from reality, to sit surrounded by, not just the cacophony of random thoughts but to place trust into a musician to take care of you whilst enjoying his music. Tracks such as 55 and From Wales, which plays with the idea of love being sought in the most unlikely of places, that of the telephone answering machine and advertising, the quality of guitar that shapes The Spirit of Calming Horses, Before Everything Started and Outdoor Sleeping make all the intelligent and perceptive cries out seem like musical poetry.
The space between a splintered disposition and fulfilling perception is often sneered at in music but with The Curtains Are Opening, it is an unspoken promise between composer and listener that no matter the experience what you will have is an understanding, two emerging and competing thoughts played out in one emotional background. An album in which to pull you under but give you mouth to mouth restitution so you can feel life under the waves!
Ian D. Hall