BARRENS
Gothenburg/Malmö-based post rock power trio Barrens return with Corpse Lights, the band’s second full-length release following their critically-acclaimed 2020 debut Penumbra. Five years in the making, Corpse Lights sees Barrens strike a breathtaking balance between light and dark; beauty and brutality; the calm and the chaos as the three fast friends refine their formidable command of composition and dynamic even further. One listen to Barrens and the revelation that Markku Hildén, Johan G. Winther and Kenta Jansson had already been playing and touring together before forming the band suddenly makes sense. In 2018 Markku joined Scraps of Tape, Johan and Kenta’s other project as a live drummer for two tours of Europe and a tour of China. Recognising an immediate chemistry, the outlines for what would become Barrens were sketched out in countless vans, trains, planes and bars as they travelled together across the world. Back home, the trio wasted no time and quickly turned their collection of notes and motifs into demos; drawing unique inspiration from the experiences they shared as well as exploring new and unknown territories as each member brought elements of their own lives to the table. The result was Penumbra, a dense, elegant and passionate collection of instrumental, synth-driven post rock pieces that sounded in no way like the debut album from a brand new band. Rather, Penumbra documents the formation of an indelible bond between three kindred creative spirits now lifelong friends. Corpse Lights, Barrens’ sophomore album, is somehow deeper, richer and headier; imbued with an alluring compositional patience that serves as unspoken testament to the combined creativity of the trio in their element, as something so much greater than the sum of its parts. Recorded and produced by Kristofer Jönson, who also helmed Penumbra, and mixed and mastered once again by Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg, shimmering synthesizers and sprawling guitars lead the charge propelled by exhilarating drums and percussion but Corpse Lights also finds Barrens using space, silence and atmosphere as another instrument if not as another band member entirely. From the meticulously crafted sonic arc of lead single ‘Periastron’, which rises and falls in effortless yet visceral measure and how ‘Sorrowed’ pulls itself apart only to rebuild anew to the mesmering percussive passage in the midst of ‘The Derelict’ and the split second of air to catch your breath before epic album closer ‘A Nothing Expands’ erupts, Corpse Lights can too be considered a document; but this time of the brotherly bond that binds Barrens transcending the confines of life on the road to become something new and uncharted, something alive.
‘Corpse Lights’ is the name given to the folk belief that small coloured lights often appear near the home of someone about to die, leading them along the path to their eventual resting place. Often considered to be evidence of the soul leaving the body, the concept of corpse lights embodies Barrens’ approach to creating music as a cathartic release; not just writing music because they want to but because they have to. Their writing process is one of joy, light and release as much as it is dark, heavy and tense.
The result is Corpse Lights, a collection of nine pieces that guide us through five tumultuous years of highs and lows, of loves and losses and victories and defeats without ever needing to say a word.
For Fans Of
Mono, PG.LOST, Caspian, Mogwai, This Will Destroy You, Russian Circles, Pelican, Scraps Of Tape, God Is An Astronaut
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