Songs of Green Pheasant

Songs of Green Pheasant have always made lonely-sounding records, the type best consumed on solitary headphones or in the midst of late night meditations. But the British group’s principal member, 32-year-old schoolteacher Duncan Sumpner, captures a whole new level of isolation, not to mention beauty, on album number three. Recording solely on an eight-track, he abandons many of his early folk leanings for those of a more ambient, shoegazing nature (think Flying Saucer Attack or Slowdive’s Pygmalion). And with this sonic shift comes more complex and ambitious song structures than heard previously, such as on "King Friday,” which weaves a variety of jumping patterns and rhythms into a unified and stunning whole. Add Sumpner’s gentle, ethereal vocals, along with a greater drum and bass presence, and you have the first Song of Green Pheasant release to sound like a proper, cohesive album, rather than simply a collection of songs. It’s true this path is lonely but it’s definitely one well worth treading.