Short Reviews [Captain Of The Lost Waves - 2022 - "Mysterium Tremendum"]

When it comes to musicians, there are few who are guaranteed to be rushed to the player as soon as a new album arrives, trumping whatever state my review list is currently in, but Captain of the Lost Waves certainly sits within that small but perfectly defined group. His releases tend to have “review killer” status, as when I start listening to his music I don’t want to play anything else, which means I am just not getting to the others I should be spending time on. “Just once more all the way through” I justify to myself, and then sit back and spend the whole evening listening to one of the most vibrant and important musicians around. The Captain has no management, no label, and refuses to compromise one iota to his own musical ideas and vision. Even a pandemic could not stop him, even though he had to isolate more than most and did much of his recording at home, as did the other three core musicians, using just two guests to create a multi-layered masterpiece. He refuses anything which impact his musical ideal, and if that means he needs to perform 40 backing tracks to a song, then that is what he does (“Animals On An Island”), and if he needs to record until nearly 4:00 in the morning to get things right then that is okay as well (“Noise and Amusements”). He said he wanted to directly reference different influences in this album, including Jeff Waynes War Of The Worlds and Tangerine Dream to early Genesis and Leonard Cohen, taking in Jean Michel Jarre, 10CC, Vangelis, Japan, Talking Heads, Ennio Morricone, Kraftwerk, Zombies, Talk Talk, Harold Budd and Brian Eno to sacred choral and mystical world music. That is quite some mix, yet one can hear all of them, often laid over the top of each other. Take “Getaway Drivers” for example which has obvious Kraftwerk connotations, yet there is also folk, modern classical, 10CC, Japan and so much more besides. The Captain is a magpie, bringing together shin bits and pieces from wherever he finds them, curating them and turning the into something which is far more than the sum of the individual parts. In his hands, a lute or mandolin sound perfectly at home in a modern pop rock song. His music is always incredibly layered, yet there is a reason for everything and still plenty of room for individual instruments to shine, and it is often whatever stringed instrument he is playing which is at the forefront. Here we have an album which seems to contain a bit of everything, but at the heart there is one man singing and accompanying himself, with songs which can be performed solo yet in this environment have been lifted into a different musical frame altogether. I have no doubt in my mind that when we get to the end of the year this will rate highly in my Top 5, as I cannot imagine many reaching these heights as the oxygen and room is incredibly sparse up there and only the very few have the strength and staying power. Yet again COTLW has released a very special album indeed, and if you have yet to investigate this amazing singer/songwriter then you need to do so now.