It is a common misconception that making music which falls into brackets such as chilled, ambient and understated is about taking a song and stripping back to merely leave lots of space. Actually it is about using the right few musical statements, just the right notes, the most effective and concise melodies to encase that space. Knowing that, Marilyn Joy’s Blackhorse Road is more about using music to create musical bubbles around the existing atmospheres and intangible feelings that naturally linger around us all.
The tangible elements of the music are a blend of classical ballad, 70’s folk, wonky recorder breaks and lo-fi production but the art is that beyond, behind, above and below those sparing and carefully chosen notes, deft and sparing riffs and plaintive piano lines the atmospherics and emotions seem to just hang in the air. There is a wonderful innocence to the simplicity of the song, a charming naivety which flies in the face of the big production and epic sounds that the modern music world is known for. More than anything it is the sound of music being made just for the love of it and that has to be the best and obviously most honest reason there is for any creative endeavour.
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