Album/EP Review: HELD BY TREES – Eventide

Sound Canyon Records [Release date: 11.08.23]

Following on from Held By Trees’ excellent ‘Solace’ in 2022, the band assembled once more at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios to realise two projects.

The first was a sparkling, live re-recording of ‘Solace’ which I recently reviewed and compared favourably to the original, remarking that the remake had a real ‘bite’ about it that lifted it above the original by its sheer immediacy engendered by the live setting.

The second is ‘Eventide’ – a new suite of five pieces themed on the transition from daylight to darkness.

‘Eventide’ was recorded live in the studio, but my shoulders slumped a little when I read that additional layers were added by other musicians in America and Canada – apparently old friends of project leader David Joseph.

The question must be asked – why?

Hard to believe they weren’t confident enough in their own abilities given how good the live version of ‘Solace’ is, and, as a result, they’ve sort of crept back into their shell, which is a pity.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Eventide’ is still a beautiful collection of songs – entirely instrumental – which paint aural pictures suggestive of many aspects of the passage of a day.

From the almost Hawaiian at times ‘Pure Sunlight’ creating an image of a deserted beach on a summer’s day (if such a thing exists) to closer ‘Grow Dark’ – sounding exactly as you would expect a song about twilight to sound, with mournful sax and nicely picked electric guitar – the songs wrap the listener in a cocoon of cotton wool.

However, the band appear to have switched back into ‘safe mode’ again and, despite the quality of the songs, find themselves occasionally lapsing into ‘lounge jazz’ territory.

This is a shame, because it’s all beautifully played, sounds great on headphones, and nobody expected a clutch of party bangers – but it’s probably best suited to mood music for TV documentaries about dolphins.

‘Eventide’ is issued as an EP as it only clocks in at a tad over 22 minutes, but the vinyl release is an LP which includes three tracks from ‘Solace: Live’ – ‘In The Trees’, ‘The Tree Of Life’ and ‘The New Earth’.

If you compare the three live tracks with the rest you’ll get my drift. ***1/2

Review by Alan Jones

Album review (Solace – Live At Real World Studios)

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