Ghost's founder
Masaki Batoh disbanded the group in the spring of 2014 after a seven-year hiatus, but wasted no time forming
the Silence a few months later. The band comprises former bandmates
Okano Futoshi (also late of
Acid Mothers Temple) on drums, and
Kazuo Ogino on keyboards. The latter (who arranged and produced this recording) then recruited bassist
Jan Stigter and flutist and saxophonist
Ryuichi Yoshida.
Batoh's music comes full-circle on
The Silence. While his last solo album (
Brain Pulse Music) was a gentle, holistic series of improvisations on traditional Japanese instruments and electronic music based on a machine of his own creation, here a collaborative partnership and formal songwriting from established sources are the norm. Recorded, mixed, and mastered completely to analog tape, the sound on this record is remarkable in its warmth. Its nine tracks include seven originals and two audacious covers that cross through the terrains of dreamy pop, psychedelic folk, and spaced-out rock. "Lemon Iro No Cannabis" commences with a crescendo of rolling snare and wafting Baroque organ before saxophones, electric guitar, and a rumbling bassline slide in to create a hazy, Baroque pop melody, tastefully hued with lush piano and flute. The striking beauty in "Gotter im Exil" pays indirect homage to the songwriting of
Alan Sorrenti (circa
Aria),
Syd Barrett and
Kevin Ayers. This version of
Can's "Tango Whiskeyman," illustrated with harpsichord, upright piano, acoustic guitars, and minimal drums, walks a tipsy line between early
Soft Machine,
Tom Waits, and
Brecht/
Weill cabaret, with a skronky tenor saxophone solo carrying it out. "Jewels in Tibet," a modal ballad worthy of
Tim Buckley, reflects the unflinching vulnerability in
Batoh's vocal. A nearly seven-minute reading of the Celtic standard "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" crosses through vanguard folk, airy chamber jazz, and driving psychedelic rock. The instrumental "Triptykon" features abstract Eastern modes woven through gentle dissonance toward open-ended English folk. "Nana No Open Back Banjo" contains a tranced-out repetitive bassline and elliptical drumming. A reverb-drenched glissando guitar plays serpentine lines while
Batoh sings hypnotically into the elastic drift. It picks up steam as a
Doors-esque organ and flute float up through the center. The stinging guitar break is backmasked. "Pesach" is a punchy drum and guitar groover, its dark intensity tempered by skittering breaks. Throughout,
The Silence doesn't rush but slowly emerges; it is seductively heavy due to spaciousness in the mix. And while it's true that this date bears
Batoh's signature as a multi-dimensional musical traveler, it also portrays the sound of a band whose members psychically lock onto one another in order to explore inner space.