The oceans continue to be a chief source of inspiration for the Northumberland-born, Edinburgh-based composer Graham Richardson, who titled his 2006 debut Sea. Halfway through his latest record we hear the sound of waves rumbling in the distance, collapsing against the shore to the sound of quivering strings and organ drones with a weighty majesty. The small, seemingly random popping noises in the foreground could be the sound of cracking ice, or perhaps the gradual buckling of wood. They appear on Endurance, a track named after the vessel trapped and eventually crushed by huge chunks of Antarctic debris during its ill-fated expedition.
The kind of music Richardson makes – sentimental, evocative instrumentals performed by acoustic piano and strings – leaves plenty room for interpretation, so the little clues offered by track titles and the album artwork are useful in prompting the listener’s imagination. Even without these signposts though, his gentle, expansive arrangements paint vivid mental landscapes often tinged with a sense of melancholy and decay. Found sound is central in achieving this effect; the garbled shipping transmission included in Strait of Dover for instance, sounds like the ghostly echo of a forgotten world when paired with Richardson's ethereal string harmonies.
| A1 | Towards The Horizon |
| A2 | Whitecaps |
| A3 | Fading Shore |
| A4 | James Caird |
| A5 | Surfacing |
| A6 | Strait of Dover |
| B1 | Endurance |
| B2 | Weddell Sea |
| B3 | Tiny Flares |
| B4 | Murmurations |
| B5 | Where The Sky Rests |
