A Dead Forest Index is a New Zealand duo based in the UK, siblings Adam Sherry on drums and Sam Sherry singing on guitar. Their paces vary from stately waltz to relaxed run as songwriter Adam's voice remains the focal point throughout debut LP In All That Drifts From Summit Down, which evokes a medley of phenomena found along the unmarked paths of mountains and forests.
An examination of natural beauty and decay, the album is beautiful and gloomy, even mournful. "Upon Dark Hills" opens with a droning, deathly organ, while "Cast of Lines" takes a slow row across a fog-covered body of water. Synth and bass drum rumbles slip slowly through cracks in the soil on "Sand Verse," one of two tracks that feature guitarist Gemma Thompson of Savages.
Revered British poet William Blake, whose writings influenced some of the songs here, once wrote that a "tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way." With this sentiment in mind, A Dead Forest Index keep a catalogue of laments and resolutions, the most prominent of which is both of those things: the idea that all living things must one day die.
(Sargent House)An examination of natural beauty and decay, the album is beautiful and gloomy, even mournful. "Upon Dark Hills" opens with a droning, deathly organ, while "Cast of Lines" takes a slow row across a fog-covered body of water. Synth and bass drum rumbles slip slowly through cracks in the soil on "Sand Verse," one of two tracks that feature guitarist Gemma Thompson of Savages.
Revered British poet William Blake, whose writings influenced some of the songs here, once wrote that a "tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way." With this sentiment in mind, A Dead Forest Index keep a catalogue of laments and resolutions, the most prominent of which is both of those things: the idea that all living things must one day die.