WL//WH Review Pieter Nooten – Marselle Hodges
We have an amazing release here, a treasure for all ears. Pieter Nooten, a co-founding member of the seminal darkwave band Clan of Xymox, with whom he recorded several highly acclaimed albums for 4AD Records, met with Marselle Hodges from the also highly acclaimed synth noir band The Blue Hour, to write and record an ambitious album of high-quality ethereal dream-pop music. Then they handed it over to Brian Hodges (also from The Blue Hour) for what turned out to be an exemplary mixing in the studio for such kind of music, and right after that, the album went to the hands of Martin Bowes (from legends Attrition) for the final mastering at the Cage studio.
These four visionaries together made the enormous album ‘Anonymity’ LP that was released on May 7, with 6 songs of huge interest at the highest level of this (dark) art. The 6-track album blends elements of ethereal, electronic, and neoclassical to offer a suite of songs that nest comfortably between the lush output of early 4AD and the modern ambient electronic music with Pieter Nooten on instruments and composition and Marselle Hodges on vocals and lyrics. The first single a couple of weeks ago was ‘Fade Away’, come to experience for what follows in the album.
Magical and integrated musical things shall fill your space. The sense of perfection and absolute balance everywhere within this work, ‘Anonymity’ LP is a landmark record of its kind. On May 12, came out the second model from the record and is the title track with an also official video too and we go on…
Τhere are only a handful of musicians in the world who can live up to their expectations and imagination, there are very few who can reach such artistic heights. And if the whole thing with the ethereal dreampop furrow used to be sounding like something finite all over the years, our guests today are coming to shake the waters again with an album that is what the same genre ordains; that music has to be larger than the same music style itself. Everything must be done with great care, everything must bind the free mood of their members, and everything must be … magical by all means. A fantastic music melody with an incredible chanteuse, they both need a song to stand safely on it and Nooten sat down to write the notes on paper first, and arrange it all for the lyrics and the voice of Hodges. Αnd if it seems to you that everything was done automatically, then listen to what work has been done for the whole offering/ album/ release. The record is a bliss, and I put in the job of both sound mechanics; Martin Bowes (Attrition) and Brian Hodges (The Blue Hour), who made some targeted wonders to make it all sound exactly as it should.
Keep Up With Pieter Nooten / Marselle Hodges:
Marselle Hodges, Pieter Nooten
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
