Sweeney - Quiet Companion [Sound In Silence 128]

Another fresh album release put out on the circuit via the Greek Sound In Silence label as their cat.no. 128 is "Quiet Companion", a new quasi compilation of previously unreleased material, alternative mixes and hard to find cuts cooked up by South Australian producer Jason Sweeney. Set to be somewhat of a companion piece to his 2LP compilation vinyl edition "Exquisite Introversions" recently published in Australia via the Observable Universe imprint the ten tracks and 37 minutes spanning album we're dealing with features material recorded in the period between 2014 and 2024, opening with the tender "Train", a song driven by fascinatingly beautiful piano lines, innate intimacy, yearning and deeply melancholic string arrangements and an ever steady and present slow motion beat drawing the listener in from the very first moment whereas the subsequent "Forty Five" sees Jason Sweeney lay down a brittle, vibrating and fluttering vocal performance atop a rather subdued Rock-leaning vibe and "His Ghost" even touches base with a minimalist take on what could be described as a caressing - and surely bass aware - SynthPop ballad of the highest order. Furthermore we see "True Love" embarking on a sea of strings, evoking faint echoes of memories of music once produced by Deine Lakaien vocalist Veljanov for some strange and probably just sentimental reasons with "Sentients" providing a sparse, enchanted and almost tribalistic SynthPop vibe surely striking a chord for all Depeche Mode fans later down the line and the "Loyal Friend", in itself a rare thing to find anyway and at all times, brings to mind slightly off-kilter and off-harmonic tape loop experiments when it comes to its rather interesting piano arrangements to to name a few. As a solely song-oriented album this surely is a somewhat unusual outing for the Sound In Silence imprint but a rather recommended one at the same time and surely a long player suitable to be on constant rotation when sharing intimate moments with a loved one. Go check.

Album artwork on Instagram!