Album review: HELD BY TREES – Solace – Live At Real World Studios

Sound Canyon Records [Release date: 11.0.23]

Held By Trees is a collective of outstanding musicians, three of whom had connections to and played with the band Talk Talk.

Back in the day, Talk Talk, under the eclectic leadership of the sadly late Mark Hollis, released a number of rather fine, if somewhat diverse albums in the ‘80s and early 90’s.

Re-assembling in 2022, Held By Trees produced the excellent ‘Solace’, featuring ace session guitarists Robbie McIntosh and Tim Renwick plus guest pop-up contributions from talents such as the wonderful Eric Bibb and David Knopfler.

David Randall, in his usual inimitable style, described it in his review as “reflective and absorbing music” and made the observation that “nothing moves too quickly in this world”.

I thought the album was excellent too but with the caveat (that many instrumental albums carry) that it was all just a bit ‘safe’ – alright if you’re having a seaweed wrap on a spa-break, but nothing to set the pulses racing.

However, under project leader David Joseph (a great guitar player in his own right by the way), HBT have re-re-convened and recorded live versions of five of the finest tracks from the original album.

Now this is more like it.

It’s still a beautiful album, but the live sound has injected just the right amount of ‘bite’ to the proceedings, with the guitars being far more up-front and the whole shebang feeling much more like the band are pouring their heart and soul into it.

Dave’s review tells you all you need to know so no need for duplication – but, from my perspective, the live re-make is the better of the two, although you do miss out on three very good tracks from the original – ‘Next To Silence’, ‘Wave Upon Wave’ and ‘An Approach’ which kind of makes it an EP – but no matter, it’s so much better than most of the dross around at the moment.

Probably best buy both, just to be on the safe side and play the first when you’re neck-deep in a Radox bath. ****

Review by Alan Jones

By the way – the cover art-work on both albums is superb and very redolent of those Talk Talk albums.

Album review (Held By Trees, 2022)

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