Picture a dusty Victrola gramophone sitting alone in the middle of a room that hasn’t been entered for years. The floor is wooden, but the turntable rests on a worn Persian rug, cigar stained and scotch soaked. Somehow a record spins, the needle is dropped, but you can barely make out what’s emanating from the horn. You approach but can only get so close before the record stops and refuses to play again. This is what the resulting memory sounds like.
James Leyland Kirby’s latest album as The Caretaker, Patience (after Sebald), is once again a collection of atrophied music, but this time Franz Schubert is the focus of his efforts. Gorgeous and as haunting as ever, this record could soundtrack a morning hangover like no other music on earth.
Pick up Patience (after Sebald) here. And download our Jam of the Day, “When the Dog Days Were Drawing To an End,” the most un-digital sounding, digital track, below.