release date: Jun. 8, 2009
format: cd (AATTCD07)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]
producer: *self-produced
label: AATT - nationality: England, UK
*Credits only mention recording, mixing and mastering credits
Track highlights: 1. "Virus Meadow" (live in Toulouse ) - 2. "Dialogue" (live in Toulouse) - 4. "Mary of the Woods" (live in Toulouse) - 5. "Jacob Fleet" (live in Toulouse) - 6. "Candace"
11th studio album by And Also the Trees is, once again, a self-realised album. Its the first of two consecutive albums to feature only acoustic versions of songs from their back catalogue, and it contains 14 tracks and runs approx. 51 minutes. The music has been stripped down to melody lines with Simon Huw Jones' strong and dark vocal accompanied by acoustic guitar, double bass, dulcimer / or melodica and some backing vocals only. The result is surprisingly powerful and almost mesmerising.
The album has nothing to do with selling old wine on new bottles, as one could suspect when releasing a new album featuring old songs. And the fact that the songs go as far back as the mid 1980s is never heard because of a total revitalisation of music making it a firm and strong whole, which makes me think of the great contemporary Liz Green and her fine alternative folk and singer / songwriter albums Haul Away from 2014 and the great debut O, Devotion! (2011).
Many of the songs on the album were part of a live tour "Livequest #50" [?]. The remaining songs were later reworked in the studio and released on the album Driftwood (2011).
=> French documentary about the process leading to When the Rains Come.
