Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Imagine walking through the bleakest, darkest, scariest forest, you are guided by intuition rather than direction, you have no sense of time because all the natural indicators have been swept away by the tight foliage, by the darkness, by the obscurity, and this is a place where even shadows are frightened to emerge; then out of nowhere a sliver of light appears through the trees, a small, almost imperceptible, an aspiration of hope that like a will-o’-the wisp will reveal the way out, that the sunlight through the trees is more than just direction, it is the target.

Tom Houston’s music experience, to his own admission the way through the woods, its knotted vines, its irregular paths over stumps designed to trip and cause harm, had become too cluttered, and in that, like all good artists, resolution comes from a ray of light, whether by design or fortune, and leads the way, offers the moment of Komorebi, of continuing to live the dream knowing that someone somewhere will still find your presence not only soothing, but vital.

Produced and arranged by Neill MacColl, who also adds an array of wonderful instrumentation to Tom Houston’s witty, wry, and sentimental pleasure of acoustic guitar and dramatic, almost poetic vocals, Komorebi, the latest, and perhaps most revealing album of his career, is one that gifts the listener the understanding of what it means to be lost, directionless, absolved from participating in the trials of the mind, and actively commits to pushing not only his own narrative forwards again, but that of those who are encouraged by the Muse, by the being in the dark who parts the crowing leaves to unleash light.

Across tracks such as the openers Under The Mat, Across The River, and Wishing For Snow, the path is cleared, it becomes lighter, the eyes following the heart in what it knows to be the way forward, and in a sense of purity, a response to the darkness that is highlighted by the urge to feel freedom exposed.

With backing vocals on the album provided by Hafdis Hund, Me For Queen, and Kate and Amber St. John, the album finds ways to pull at the heartstrings with incredible deftness and all the while never removing the immensity of solitude, that exactness of isolation which can drive us on to search for the place where the sun finally hits our skin and soothes our troubles.

With other tracks such as Strange Birds, Little Lies, and As We Lay On The Grass, adding constant direction, providing bridges across uncertainties of the ground underneath, Tom Houston emerges from the cover of unnatural darkness and with a firm grip takes the listener beyond the realm of doubt and shaking nerves to a place where honesty is never confused with comfort, but only with a truth of passion and a sincere appetite for sovereignty of expression.

A wonderful return for Tom Houston, an album that puts all the pieces back together and leaves the forest far behind.

Ian D. Hall