Irish indie folk outfit Villagers, send off 2015 and welcome in the new year with Where Have You Been All My Life?  

Recorded live in one day and branded a “re-imagining of older material”, the album takes on a completely natural progression from the group’s previous release, Darling Arithmetic. The virtuous, modest and hankering qualities that make frontman Conor O’Brien a recognisable poet, remain firmly cemented inside the reworked tracks. 

Enveloped within each song’s new identity, remains a skeleton of the original concept and this was something that was present during Villagers’ UK Spring tour. This album is the perfect extension. Where almost always possible, it's gloriously stripped down. As ever, O’Brien’s story telling is nothing short of exceptional. Crisp and prominent. 

Naturally, more recent songs from Darling Arithmetic have less reason to come to the party in fancy dress. Tracks from the first two records seem to have made the biggest effort. ‘Set the Tigers Free’, although performed at a slower pace it's more compelling than its successor and ‘The Waves’ is equally as haunting as the original, but eagerly searches out the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just 9 months after the previous Villagers release, Where Have You Been All My Life? is perhaps a sign of maturity and growth that O’Brien has stumbled upon, completely unforced. In just one or two takes, the direct approach has captured the enchantment that Villagers have built their reputation on. For these songs to be picked apart and put back together in such a way that charm and compassion survive the reconstructing process, speaks volumes. 

The anticipation of fresh material is an ongoing predicament that faces all artists, but with arrangements that have this much personality and freedom from past versions, the waiting isn't as bleak as it often seems.

Where Have You Been All My Life? is available from Amazon & iTunes. 

The one word that grabs the listener when playing Instrumentals 2015 is “mood”. Other words also spring to mind, such as “space”, “melodicism”, and “experimentalism”. Flying Saucer Attack are one of those bands that have been around for a long time, never really breaking through into the mainstream, but attracting enough interest to sustain a career, like the similarly sonically bound experimenter Rhys Chatham, who writes work for 100 piece guitar orchestras, but comes from the same melodic template.

Instrumentals 2015 is the group’s first release in 15 years, and follows on from Mirrors, which was released in 2000. The tracks range in timbre and mood from the short number one and number two that open the album, to the long and meandering pieces, some of which stretch to nine minutes or more, that feature at the album’s close, so this album is not going to be for everyone. It does not really give a lot for guitarists to be amazed by, and many people will just not get what the band had in mind at the time of writing and creating these pieces. The drifting, meandering nature of the pieces mean that they have more in common with Indian music, and the sitar in particular. Fans of such performers as Philip Glass, Mike Oldfield, Steve Reich and Ed Alleyne-Johnson are likely to find something to like in this release.

David Pearce, who wrote the album, and also plays all of the guitars and produces all of the sounds on this album, juxtaposes sweeping majestic moments with cacophonous feedback and misplaced drones to keep the audience’s interest. This is one of those albums that should be listened to in its entirety. It is not an album that is designed to be sold by the million. There are no hit singles, but a consistent mood that is maintained by the foresight and planning of Pearce’s singular talent.

Instrumentals 2015 is available from Amazon and iTunes.