Self-released
Release date: April 14, 2020
Production: IO Earth
Album length: 63.56 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 10/10
IO Earth are a seven-piece progressive rock outfit from Birmingham, England, who put out their fifth studio album, »Aura«, this year. After four superb albums, each one showcasing an artistic peak, the latest of them, »Solitude«, somehow seemed to dictate that its level of artistic polish would be hard to top. All the more so since the band needed an even shorter stretch of time to put together the new record than in the past. You could more or less conclude that after four albums the band had hit its artistic zenith and said everything essential about its musical vision. So expectations that the next album after »Solitude« could still surprise anyone were, well, low.
But »Aura« is anything but a record that fails to surprise. It does so in all the glory of a fresh artistic brilliance. Compared to the ‘smashing’ »Solitude« – let’s call it an album firmly backed by a heavier dose of distorted sonic seasoning – »Aura« is its complete opposite. The band subordinated the arrangements to a clear musical value, and more than ever before in their career, they’ve streamlined them. They completely “unchained” the arrangements from sonic heaviness and, on the new record, headed off in search of floating, transcendental, hypnotic effects, painting layered, sonically rich and spacious musical expanses. Leading the way is the artistic aura of a varied palette of keyboard work (including undulating synthesizing, a sound close to the Mellotron, and the integration of a theremin) and orchestral solutions, which are tightly filled by the sensuously intuitive and deeply committed conceptual flexibility of piano, violin, flute and whistles, plus occasional esoteric moments of »Gilmouresque« guitar playing that trades off with acoustic interludes across the album. All the building blocks are bound together into a reconciled conglomerate of a colorful spectrum, with a compact stance of delicate mutual dialogue and awareness. The dynamics of the sonic gradations and the highly compatible way everything merges and connects is simply astonishing, and only confirms the septet’s remarkable unity in following the musical direction laid out on »Aura«. The result is a truly top-tier musical achievement that few can rival. On top of all this come male-female vocal duets and the operetta-like vocal of guest mezzo-soprano Uyanga Bold of East West Voices of Empire, which heightens the sense of solemnity and transcendental voyaging and magnifies a highly vibrant unfolding of drama theater, full of mysticism and yearning melancholy. At the same time, this integration intensifies – or contrasts with – all the lightness of the sonic sophistication. As if the band were constantly searching for, or discovering, perfect virginal purity in sound. Something it had been (evolutionarily) waiting to express fully on »Aura«, and nowhere else.
This is an album worth listening to by taking the time for it and giving it your full attention, because it rewards you in full. Times are crazy and it’s hard to find even an hour in your everyday life to devote strictly to yourself, but think of it as a treatment, much like a run uphill. Except you recharge your batteries, or reach personal regeneration, in a slightly different way.
Young singer Rosanna Lefevre, who’s just a little over twenty, is a new discovery for IO Earth. Not only did she find herself in the right place at the right time on »Solitude«, her first album with the band, and “rescue” it, but on its successor she shows a new side of her until now undiscovered vocal charms. »Aura«, an effort made from a considerably different dough, demands a completely different vocal approach, and Rosanna confirms her brilliance and top-class talent. Wherever she shows up with her at times virginally lithe voice, she becomes an inexhaustible generator of passion and emotion. Of course, yearning and deep melancholy lead the way, which, in correlation with the richly arranged instrumental playing, deepens the moment of mysticism, mystery and vibrant solemnity. The Brits are masters at this, and with »Aura«, IO Earth are once again among the top matadors of the craft. The album also has moments that come intensely close to the characteristics of a film musical. That goes in general for both parts of Resonance, while Breathe and Shadows hold the most moments of transcendence and grabby British mysticism, and also internalize an incredible melancholy. The Rain, the striking and highly ambitious closing symphonic epic, can be declared the artistic peak of this album, although »Aura« has to be treated as an absolute whole. Take away even one small piece of its musical puzzle and you’ve pretty much lost everything, because its artistic essence collapses like a house of cards. Simple as that. It’s very likely that you can’t do better than what »Aura« offers in terms of IO Earth artistry in 2020. But never say never, because the superb »Solitude« set off those same feelings.
The creative drive »Aura« achieves is top-notch, the development of the tracks surprises at every step, and the album creeps under your skin very slowly. But once a record like this gets under your skin, it “gets stuck” in the player and refuses to come out. Every artistic move is measured out with the exceptionally sensuous fine mechanics of a filigree aesthetic of composing, which in the reconciled way its building blocks come together reaches an expressive optimum. In the atmospheric, the performance and, certainly, the compositional payoff alike.
There’s no point in rambling on for too long and losing the essence of this record’s superb artistic aesthetic. Here the music is simply what deserves to be called boundless beauty, full of charms that trigger intense, soul-fulfilling responses in the listener. Of course, it depends on what kind of soul you are. If your heart is “progressive”, then »Aura« might well be your album of 2020!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Aura
2. Waterfall
3. Breathe
4. Resonance I
5. Circles
6. Shadows
7. Resonance II
8. The Rain
Line-up:
Rosanna Lefevre – vocals, backing vocals
Dave Cureton – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, percussion, keyboards, programming
Adam Gough – keyboards, theremin, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, programming
Luke Shingler – flute
Jez King – violin
Christian Nokes – bass guitar
Tim Wilson – drums
Guest musician:
Uyanga Bold – vocals
