Rhys Marsh and the Autumn Ghost
Dulcima
Terino Records

Rhys Marsh follows an excellent album with a new effort that shows he's grown as an artist. Dulcima is exciting and has bite across its eight lengthy songs.

"In the Afterglow" is a full-scale treat with a burning melody and female backing vocals rising to the fore. "Divide in Silence" is soft and slow, moving at a careful pace. Marsh's vocals are lovely here, a ghost of a whisper in the dark. "The Safety of All You Know" becomes a full on epic, Marsh's vocals a sinuous whisper against the melody. The song is truly progressive in a forward thinking way. It's a bit like Porcupine Tree.

"In the Dark, in Light" provides a fitting end to an extraordinary journey. Marsh's vision is clearly one to cherish, here he leaps boldly from dark to light. It's a track that might have been written in an earlier era, but it's very much a creature of today. Much like this album.

Copyright © 2009 Anna Maria Stjärnell