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Larsen | Rever | Review
erasingclouds.com | Dave Heaton
the soundtrack for bad dreams and good nightmares
Larsen's Rever album first seems ordinary enough, with guitarists mellowly improvising. Yet by the 2-minute mark it starts getting weird, with gruff voices singing low in the mix, trumpet playing wildly in the back, "instruments" that are hard to identifyÅ and then a cloud of almost-silent noise, leading into the next track. That one's a 12-minute rain cloud-meets-industrial screaming-meets-a slowly oncoming train, with what be an accordion floating about, that turns into a dark, guitar-led marching song. Welcome to the world of the Italian foursome Larsen. It's a mysterious place, where noisy clouds lurk overhead and masked guitarists jump out from behind every corner, sometimes to caress you with a sweet lullaby, sometimes to attack you heavy-metal style. Meanwhile ghostly voices come from the shadows, singing/speaking/begging for your soul, usually in Italian. Other times they'll bust into a melodic stroll, throw a minimalist piece at you like classical musicians, or get all Sonic Youth on your ass...you never know. This is the soundtrack for bad dreams and good nightmares, a strange strange world.