Folding Leaves is the second full length album by Message To Bears. Originally starting as a bedroom project for multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander, Message To Bears seems to have broken into it’s element within this third album capturing and manipulating the elements and influences of the first recordings titled EP1 and the first full length album, Departures.
Experimenting with ambient, folk and classical compositions, Message To Bears fuel the imagination and, during this time of year, the release of Folding Leaves brings forth ideas of nostalgia and warmth in it’s construction, perfect to pull the listener through the heartless winters. Most notably, the sample of bird songs at the start of ‘Wake Me’, drives the listener from their bedroom or iPod to Message To Bears’ own created world of isolation and innocence. The vocal melodies are also prominent features of the song that aid to it’s dreamlike sensation and show one of the ways Message To Bears has evolved as a project since EP1. It could be argued that such vocal tones and guitar tones resembles the early music of Tunng (most notably ‘Jenny Again’), a sure achievement for any writer who started by recording in their room.
However, music of such genre quite often carries melancholic emotions, reflected in the track titled ‘Everything Was Covered In Snow’. The track surrounds itself at the start and finish with fragile and frosty keys, engulfing ambient and synth loops in the middle along with distanced voices that resemble shouts of anger.
All in all this album is a must listen, especially one to relax to at the end of a hard day with a cup of tea. It’s an incredibly easy listen, however is perhaps most interesting when time is taken to deconstruct each song’s structure individually as they can become intertwined and the real joy in it is the underlying differences through sample use and subtle keys.
The album is available to stream for free over at Bandcamp and can be purchased there for a measly £6!
Discover Message To Bears: Bandcamp // Facebook
By Dan Waller
Dance Yrself Clean
