Instrumental music isn’t just music without lyrics; far from it. At its best, it is music in which the instruments take the place of the lyrics. Rather than talking in a language that uses defined words and phrases to lead the listener to pre-ordained conclusions, instrumental music uses sound to evoke feeling and emotion, conjuring sensations from the heart, perhaps even the soul, instead of relying on anything as fallible as the spoken word.
Cranebrook is just such an album, one that uses weaves of sound, arrays of sonics, deft arrangements, and dynamic flows to pay tribute, in part, to the band’s Western Australian roots. But like all such albums, the composer’s intent is never more important than the listener’s interpretation, and so Solkyri’s music becomes a series of one-way conversations with numerous listeners, all responding in their own way, all finding, perhaps, different, personal meaning in the music.
It takes the form of a wash of ambient, post-rock music that is experimental and cinematic, deft and delicate. These long, ever-evolving pieces run from the burning intensity of “Wherever We End Up Next’s” searing highs to the gentle, progressive folk passages of “Autumn Mould.”
There are more beat-driven pieces, such as “1804” and its blend of propulsive drumming and shimmering, Vangelisian soundscapes, and there are more drifting and ephemeral sounds, such as the EP’s swan song, “Where The Quiet Can Hide.”
And what is it all about? Well, that’s the great thing about such music, as you listen to its dulcet tones and musical precision, its adventurous sonics and its emotive sounds, whatever emotions well up inside you, whatever memories are recalled, whatever feelings of nostalgia are evoked, whatever thoughts and ideas are brough to mind – that’s exactly what it is about.
