Page 26 - 2022-08-01 Sound & Vision

made a record you can just throw on in Above: Barbieri considered, and he adds a great deal of ‘Chimera’s Wreck,’ which we wrote with
the background and not engage with surrounded by a beauty to things.” Adds Wilson, “I know me on acoustic guitar and Gavin on
it. Obviously, in careerist terms, that’s plethora of keyboards: Richard enjoyed making this record drums—but those tracks were both
been an Achilles heel because, how "When you walk into perhaps as much as any record we’ve developed with us face to face in his
do you sell music like that in today’s the studio with a ever made, because there was more studio, recording live.”
world—music that demands an awful synthesizer, nobody space for him to speak and commu- “Chimera’s Wreck” is also notable
lot from the listener? You’re asking for knows what it's going nicate what he does so well, with the because of the human elements evident
engagement on a fairly deep level, and to sound like—and guitars taking a slightly less-dominant in the way it ebbs and flows. “It isn’t even
you’re asking for them to give you their that's the beauty of it." role.” Concludes Barbieri, “I think what I played to a click track; it’s in free time,”
time to absorb it, listen multiple times, Page 27: A typically give to Steven to work with lends itself to Wilson catalogs. “It speeds up, and it
and decode all the various layers and intense Harrison, this immersive sound pale e of ours.” slows down. And that’s an old-school
things we’re pu ing into the music. looking up from his For his part, Harrison cites the way of recording—the two of us just
But I can’t make music any other way. drum kit: "Atmos and core album’s final track, the ultimately facing each other, le ing the track
That’s what I love to do—and that also surround mixes give explosive “Chimera’s Wreck,” as the speed up and slow down as we feel it.”
spirals into why I love Atmos and 5.1 so you a lot of space." breakthrough that unlocked everything. Within that special Wilson/Harrison
much. It’s another way to present all the “That’s the real epic,” he believes. “We push/pull were the keys to the entire
complexity—not in terms of the music, made waves with the shi ing tempos, to C/C kingdom. “To echo what Gavin said,
but complexity in terms of the amount the point where the lyrics would just fall when we had those two tracks down,
of layering and detail.” over these crests.” we knew we had something we could
Speaking of added layers, this is Wilson adds both “Harridan” and build on,” Wilson observes. “We knew
where Barbieri’s compositional exper- “Chimera’s Wreck” were the bedrock we had a way forward. The one thing I
tise comes to C/C’s fore, seeing as his tracks se ing the table for everything felt very strongly about is there would be
mastery at adding keyboard swoops that came therea er. “They’re both epic absolutely no point for Porcupine Tree
and swaths in all the right places is on tracks, and they both were essentially coming back with another record that
full display. As Harrison puts it, “Richard wri en with me on bass, and Gavin just felt like more of the same.” Consid- Photo: Adam Taylor
specializes in sound design. He’s not a on drums,” he reports. “The excep- ering the way the other five C/C cuts fill
‘come in and jam’ guy—he’s much more tion would be the opening section of out the track listing—the deceptively

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26 August September 2022 soundandvision.com