We are all the product of our environment; that much is obvious, but perhaps that is more so in the case of musicians and their creative output. For those who know how to listen deeply, who understand how to interpret the music, or at least recognise its various strands, sounds, and styles, listening to their songs is like studying a person’s DNA.
With Myles Cochran, this is definitely a case, and those with sharp enough perception will be able to trace lines that link everything from roots and country music, through more improvisational sounds, such as the later Talk Talk albums and the jazz touches of Soft Machine, just by listening to his eloquent and expressive music.
What You Said, his third album, is the follow-up to his acclaimed 2024 album, You Are Here, and again features a swathe of exquisite instrumental soundscapes, cinematic, adventurous, and all the more beguiling without lyrics to lead you to draw obvious conclusions. This is how it feels to be Alice falling down the sonic rabbit hole, only in reassuringly safer hands.
If “See Far Away” opens the album via a perhaps more recognisable acoustic folkscape, albeit one with shuffling undercurrents and ticking beats, this is only an initial jumping-off point for this mercurial album. “The Sea Dreams of You” sees Michelle Packman’s deft and delicate cello sweeps and swoon, shifting things into a sort of futuristic neo-classical soundscape, one of three songs she features on.
And while tracks such as “Later” are spacious, filmic, and achingly beautiful, it is often the sonic backdrops that as much set the scene, such as the beatific beats of “Betwixt and Between” or the shuffling, anticipatory energy of “Pound Foolish.”
Myles Cochran doesn’t just deliver tracks or even build cinematic soundscapes; these feel more like stories as music, relatable tales woven out of mood and intent, feeling and memory. And without words to guide you, you might not understand what that story specifically is, but such is the unexpected presence of this gossamer-light music, the emotions it exudes are recognisable, relatable, and palpable.
