0
Instrumental Japanese post-rock legends Mono are set to return to the UK this coming March for the following dates.
Hot on the heels of 2009’s critically-acclaimed ‘Hmyn To The Immortal Wind’ album, and non-stop touring for five years, the band hibernated for over a year to focus solely on writing.
Hymn To The Immortal Wind is their most thoughtful and eclectic album to date. Written and arranged with a hopeful, romantic narrative in mind, the songs string together like chapters in an epic love story.
The music is naturally majestic, with Mono’s trademark wall of noise crashing beautifully against the largest chamber orchestra the band has ever enlisted. The instrumentation is vast, incorporating strings, flutes, organ, piano, glockenspiel and tympani into their standard face melting set-up.
Recorded to analog tape with long-time friend and producer Steve Albini, there is an intimacy captured here that is at once beautiful and a little terrifying. The creaking of old wooden chairs as the orchestra rocks in their seats (both literally and figuratively), puckered lips rolling along flutes, and even the conductor’s opening cue can be heard during the hauntingly quiet opening moments.
March tour dates:
Wed 17/03/2010 Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon 15/03/2010 The Scala, London
Tue 16/03/2010 The Asylum, Birmingham
Thu 18/03/2010 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds