In 2001, Rick Tomlinson first appeared in the underground, collaborating with Dave Tyack (RIP) and Naomi Hart on a relatively unchecked and underappreciated EP on the Twisted Nerve imprint. During the next four years, he worked on various projects alongside Jane Weaver, Andy Votel, Aidan Smith, and ex-Broadcast drummer Chris Walmsley. Hints of the soon-to-be Voice of the Seven Woods drifted through "Svarka," his track with Chris Walmsley on the Jukebox Singles single #5, but it was "An Hour Before the Dawn," a track he recorded under his own name for the Now is the Winter of Our Discount Tents compilation, that was the most potent harbinger.
In December of 2005, listeners witnessed Voice of the Seven Woods' first official manifestation (Tomlinson had already self-released a limited-pressing CD-R). "An Hour Before the Dawn," their debut 7-inch EP, married shadings of krautrock, folk, and psych to an equally powerful individual expressiveness. Justly, the release sold out quickly. A string of limited and independent releases followed, each selling out within weeks or even days, and each allowing yet a deeper gaze down the rabbit hole, illuminating the gradual build to a full-length album -- which is not a limited release, thankfully.
Predominantly performing instrumentals, Tomlinson, Chris Walmsley, and Pete Hedley engage across 10 tracks in a passionate exchange with the shadows of folk, psych, and traditional Middle Eastern and Asian musics. When describing this record, you could eagerly reference Sam Gopal, Davy Graham, Pentangle, and Edip Akbayrim. In doing so, though, it is easy to lose sight of the work's most important element: the essence of purity with which it is imbued. This is a humbling representation of a musician who has just begun to explore his reach.
"Sand and Flames" leads off with fervent pacing, which continues, in varying degrees, throughout the work's whole. Guitar, lilting and driving in equal measure, descends into an ecstatic exchange with cymbal crashes and galloping drums before the fiery "Sayat Nova" leaps forth on the tumble of a drum roll. Could this title be a dedication to the Armenian troubadour of the same nomer, or merely the suggestion that it is the "King of Songs"? With the song's deftly manipulated time signatures -- rolling drum, clattering tamborine and spraying cymbal interweave with the temper of a raga -- it's hard to say. Whatever the case, this song is nothing short of breathtaking.
The intensity and fervor continue with "The Fire in My Head." In comparison to its predecessors, what seems initially tame progresses into near frenzy as the introspective picking of an oud rises alongside percussive urgency that's plummeting into swarming, fuzzed-out guitar motifs. It's a damn near hallucinatory, impassioned outpouring rivaled only by the sheer fury of "Second Transition," which stretches itself into oblivion on wordless waves of voice, and the delirious, reverb-laden ramble of "Underwater Journey."
Defined moments of beauty are just as important to the strength of the whole as the intensity-shot passages. The inspired picking of "Valley of the Rocks," the limber saunter and build of "Road to Byzantium," and the achingly haunting majesty of "The Smoking Furnace" go lengths without peaking in quite the same manner as the aforementioned tracks, yet remain greatly effective, their strength lying in their subtler build and release. This fragile beauty is evidenced most profoundly, however, in "Silver Morning Branches" and its reprisal "Dusk Cloud." The former's gossamer threads of delicate fingerpicking merge with silken strains of voice trailing upwards, smoke-like, before changing form with a mariachi rhythmic bridge. The latter offers a crushingly beautiful manifestation of treated voice and plaintive guitar.
"I was awoken by the sun/ Shifting rhythms of the light/ Silver branches twisted high to the air/ Spraying patterns on the sky/ As the dawn slips away." Voice of the Seven Woods achieves a waking dream-state, and it's illuminated by the purest light, casting shadows off objects which morph and reassume beguiling forms. It is an inspired and ultimately timeless achievement that never ceases to captivate.
More about: Voice of the Seven Woods
