Short Reviews [Afraid to Wake - 2024 - "A Haunting At Sea"]

I have been reviewing music by Steven McCabe for the best part of 30 years now, and have always enjoyed his releases as Elegant Simplicity, even still owning some of his early cassette tapes as well as many CDs. At the end of 2023 he found himself experimenting with a musical style which was far more ambient in nature, and very electronic, so much so that it would not fit in with his normal band, which is sometimes him as a multi-instrumentalist and a few others or a full set of guests to bring out the sound. The sensible course was to create a new entity to deliver the music away from the norm, and although the new site of course references his history this not a subset of Elegant Simplicity in any way, but instead is a new outfit in its own right. There are six instrumentals, with a total running time of 40 minutes, but given the title cut is itself some 24 minutes in length the others are not too long. Steven provides some guitar or bass here or there, but the majority of this album is all about the layers of keyboards, and he provides some information in the booklet as to what each song is about to provide a guide. I can certainly understand why Steven felt the need to put this out under a different name as there is a lot going on, but not much of it related to his normal works. Steven describes it as a “hybrid of acoustic and electronic textures, improvisation and melody. The music is free flowing and freewheeling: it goes where it wants and never outstays its welcome.” It is ambient, somewhat progressive, and it is possible the Progressive Electronic team on PA might pick up on this, but is it too ambient for them? Is there enough taking place to maintain their interest? This is definitely one of those releases which improves through repeated playing, as I was not too sure the first time I worked through it, but the more I have listened the more I have found in here to enjoy. It does need to be played on headphones so it does not fall into the background, but if you enjoy electronic keyboard music (with additional nuances from other instruments) which is working mainly in the ambient space, then this is worth seeking out.