DAKOTA SUITE & QUENTIN SIRJACQ - THERE IS CALM TO BE DONE (LP)

"Following 2011's The Hearts of Empty Liverpool based band Dakota Suite led by Chris Hooson in collaboration with David Buxton are back with another superb album on Karaoke Kalk. While Hearts of Empty was a distinctly jazzy instrumental album, There Is Calm To Be Done takes us further down a path of left-field song-writing and alternative pop. The album was produced together with Quentin Sirjacq with whom Dakota Suite have already worked in the past, on 'Valissa' (2010) and 'the side of her inexhaustible heart' (2012). The most striking thing about the Dakota Suite sound is their immense instrumentation. While most songs are driven by the piano they are adorned with all kinds of instruments to provide an overall timbre of great majesty. The presence of brass parts, woodwind, double bass and a wide array of instruments makes for a special sound. Rhythmically, the drum parts throughout the majority of 'There Is Calm To Be Done' are played with brushes, which takes the edge off and adds a gentleness that only the swooshing of brushes can achieve. Much of the album feels as if it could be film music, and each tune conjures a vivid image in the listeners mind to which the music plays the soundtrack." (label info)