For to listen.

On the weekend I downloaded Tin Hat’s (formerly the Tin Hat Trio) new album – The Sad Machinery Of Spring and I’m here to tell you it is so worth it. A new music ensemble – they make music both beautiful and often strange – nostalgic and modern. A lovely fusion that certainly does evoke the quiet intimacy found in the unfurling of new life. According to the website, pretty much every instrument is captured somewhere on this album – violin, viola, voice, piano, celeste, bowed vibes, bass harmonica, ukelin, guitar, dobro, banjo, auto-harp, bass drum, bass harmonica, trumpet, baritone horn, piano, pump organ, toy piano, celeste, b-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, contra alto clarinet and harp. The first song even features a horn violin which is one of my favourite of all the strange manifestations of string instruments (essentially it’s a violin with a small gramophone ear coming out of it in such a way as to amplify the sound – originally created for the purposes of recording onto wax cylinders). This is an album that you buy cause you want to support the creation of such poetic noises so much. Really, it is that good.