Caught In The Wake Forever
Against A Simple Wooden Cross
Hibernate Records

Caught In The Wake Forever is the solo-project of Scottish experimental ambient artist Fraser McGowan. Against A Simple Wooden Cross is his debut album, after the release of the EP All The Hurt That Hinders Home last year.

Against A Simple Wooden Cross opens with the more than 10 minutes long lovely dark, disruptive and silent piece "Scottish Grief". The soundscape is melancholic and intensely quiet, from the instrumental opener through the chill and tender whisper of the vocal on "The Quiet Beauty Of The Northern Lakes", "After The Black Out", and "The Last Of The Heroin" to the cinematic closure "Point Stands".

Fraser McGowan made Against A Simple Wooden Cross after he had a mental breakdown about a year ago. The album is a disturbingly honest document of his struggles along the way to start over again. Still, the raw and dark undertows is nicely balanced with subtle gestures of hope, and steady melodic trust in the possibilities of beauty.

Against A Simple Wooden Cross is a quietly brutal, but beautiful, debut from Caught In The Wake Forever.

Copyright © 2012 Aslaug O Klausen