Peace Begins at Home – Sea + Air (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Music is always going to be the sum of its maker’s influences, whether those reference points are consciously included or otherwise. On their latest single, the traditional music of Eleni Zafiriadou’s Greek birthplace and the classical background of Daniel Benjamin are not hard to find, but it is the sweeping dreamscaping and the shoegazing structures that they encase them it that takes this into wonderful new territories.

Although built on a prominent Bouzouki riff, this is anything but a folk outing. Peace Begins at Home shimmers with rich pop sensibilities, sweeps with symphonic grandeur, glides through wonderfully textured waters and delivers lyrics with depth and poignancy. The air around it is tinged with melancholy and regret and it is easy to see why they refer to their music as Ghost Pop (a phrase I’m sure I will be stealing for future reviews.)

Although this is the new single from their recent sophomore album, Evropi, it found its way to me as the lead song on an ep of remixes and re-imaginings which also include an ambient drone deconstruction by Sebastian Reynolds and an acoustic cover by Duke Special. Good company indeed.