Paint It Surreal – When Mountains Speak (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I love it when an album—its music, title, and artwork—all seem to be referencing one another because the artist has thought about the overall concept enough to introduce a clever synchronicity to the proceedings. That is certainly what is going on here.

Anyone who knows Steven Clarkson and the mercurial music he makes as When Mountains Speak will be aware that his sound is one of often conflicting musical tones and sonic textures, that these as readily coalesce into beautiful harmonies as often as they collide into jarring cacophonies, that the music is as much about creative conflicts as it is about clever counterpoints.

The artwork displays a similar message: a merging of color and shape, images that only hint at answers—one could be chainmail, another a sunset, the third a woodland panorama, but we can’t be sure. And the coming together of such visual suggestions, the creation of new shapes and colors that lie between, is the perfect metaphor for the music to follow. Of course, the title, Paint It Surreal, says it all.

This latest release consists of five tracks, mainly long, adventurous, and instrumental pieces. The title track opens and, as you might expect, lives up to its name: a drifting deluge of squalling sonics and not quite random/not quite rhythmic percussion, bass lines that burst like queries and questions, and guitars that sound like the long-distant messages of some far-flung space creature calling its children home across the solar system.

“Blissful Moments” echoes with one of Steven’s signature sounds—eastern percussion and prayer bells—but it is also a place where cowboy campfire harmonicas add a touch of rootsy reverie. It is the sound of worlds colliding, the East meets the West, in a way only When Mountains Speak seems able to do this evocatively.

Paint It Surreal is perhaps one of his more spacious and free-form collections. Few grooves or rhythmic structures are found, and if they are, they are often fleeting and constantly evolving. However, it is this constant change and not really knowing what is around the musical corner that has always been a hallmark of When Mountains Speak.

The final of the five, “Stray From the Dark,” is perhaps the most consistent track. It ticks along on a raga beat as oriental and arabesque-infused nodes of music appear and burst and reform and the regularity of the beat keeps things cohesive yet adventurous.

It is safe to say that When Mountains Speak is challenging music, a point I have made many times, but who doesn’t like a challenge? And I promise you, once you get your mind, heart, perhaps even your very soul, attuned to the nature of the music, the rewards keep coming.