4 out of 5

Label: Auris Apothecary

Produced by: Deserter & Dante Augustus Scarlatti (?)

A brilliantly moody, minimalist mini-set of Deserter and Scarlatti, on varying combinations of guitar, bass, piano, and organ.

With each piece recorded separately, and over a two-year span, they work together extremely well: Organic Inspiration is the opener – very much a setup piece; the cinematic build during the starting credits, as guitar and organ promisingly and patiently intertwine. This leads into Cold Cemetary Mourning, which, despite the title, has a hopeful edge to it, sprinkled into its slow crawl of keys and sounds – a rainy, grey day at a tombstone, but perhaps contemplating or considering how to approach the forthcoming day, week, years… The cinematic tag holds for this track, and very much across closer Redemption, which is the saunter – Western connotations of that term intended, rather confirmed by the bandcamp copy – into the sunset, and the fade out of closing credits. The slightly bouncy bass has a vaguely Twin Peaks vibe to it, but the reverbed production and ringing guitar tones give it more of an epic scope.

This last song, at six minutes, tends to become more drone than the other two, shorter tracks, and that’s my only criticism here – I tend to lose engagement in this last song, in part because this is a short release – it’d be more effective on an entire album of similar tunes. I realize that’s kind of a backhanded criticism, but context does play a big part in how I “hear” songs, and if Redemption were half its runtime, it’d be a perfect conclusion to this set.