Autumn's Grey Solace - Through the Labyrinths of the Dream

(Scott Ferrell)

Scott Ferrell and Erin Welton were born and raised in St. Augustine, Florida, perhaps the only city in the United States where modernity has yet to triumph over tradition. An almost fairy-tale-like place, as Ferrell himself explains, where the two met in their early twenties, deciding to give voice to their shared passion for music. Despite this, for the very first years their project was kept almost "hidden", so much so that even today they tend not to want to talk about it. "Where our music comes from is and must remain a secret, otherwise there would be no point in carrying it forward," explains Welton, never losing the grace and the smile that define her. In music as in life, the two tend to focus on the more abstract and emotional aspects, as confirmed by Ferrell: "Personally, when I listen to something, I'm not really interested in being able to classify or judge it. For me to like a track, it doesn't need to be perfect, nor innovative, nor original at all costs: it has to take my mind somewhere else, distract me, win me over. Music never heard before but that exists only for its own sake, or that doesn't communicate anything directly, makes no sense. That's why all you need to do is go to a big city and listen to the sound of traffic."

Their adventure truly took off in 2001, when the two finally decided to gather what they had sown and embark on what would become one of the most intense acts of new-millennium dream-pop. Thus Autumn's Grey Solace was officially born, the union of two genuine talents. Ferrell is an eclectic multi-instrumentalist, able to master guitars, mandolin, bass, drums, percussion and keyboards, while Welton possesses one of the most thrilling voices inspired by Fraser's example, with which she manages to produce formidable vocalising, at once extremely delicate yet charged with the explosive force of feeling. From Cocteau Twins, the duo also inherits the technique of vocalising: only in some cases, in fact, do the sung parts follow a written lyric (penned by Welton herself), while in others she breaks into improvised digressions that further heighten the otherworldly dimension of the journey they lead listeners on.

The duo's first result was not long in coming: a year later, in 2002, Ferrell and Welton decided to launch their career by gathering the best material from years of encounters and recording sessions. Within The Depths Of A Darkened Forest thus marks the official debut of Autumn's Grey Solace, presenting eight fragile, dreamy acoustic watercolours that nonetheless still give little indication of the luminous future awaiting the band. The reference points at this very early stage are the fragile melodies of the most angelic shoegazers (Slowdive), stripped of any noise-laden subterfuge and reinterpreted in a dreamy key thanks above all to Welton's pure voice.

Amid the stark, languid acoustic arrangements, it's already possible to glimpse the melodic intuitions that would later come to fruition on subsequent albums, as shown by the sensual opener “Resonant Dusk”, the slow, dreamy “Cast To The Seas In Storms”, and the voice-and-guitar prelude of “Eve”, the first great showcase of Welton's crystalline abilities, left almost entirely alone to paint a dreamlike mirage. More firmly rooted in a purely folk vein are “Forgotten, Fossilized, Archaic” and “Shadow Of Moonlight Nights”, dating from before the band's official formation and destined to remain one-off episodes in the pair's career. The closing title track, however, is the record's real centerpiece: a slow, ecstatic ballad, powerful enough on its own to stamp the band with the label of "ones to watch".

Within The Depths Of A Darkened Forest is a work that, behind the usual limits of the classic "rough first effort", conceals the shining early signs of a band whose fortune already seems written. Despite a fairly familiar approach and a notable lack of truly original ideas, it's a record that, to a trained ear, fully conveys the duo's potential. The journey can be said to have begun.

Landing at Projekt

“Entrammo in contatto con la Projekt grazie a internet e a un amico comune di Scott e Rosenthal. A Sam piacque molto la nostra musica e quando firmammo per la Projekt eravamo al settimo cielo, pensavamo di poter arrivare molto in alto. In realtà è stato così solo in parte, ma non ci importa molto: vogliamo solo fare musica che ci piaccia per chi la ascolti, che questo ci renda “grandi” o meno”

(Erin Welton)

Two years have to pass before Autumn's Grey Solace return to the spotlight. Years in which Ferrell and Welton, buoyed by the unexpected warm reception of their debut album, begin playing sporadic, emotionally charged shows, evolving their sound toward an increasingly personal dimension. At one of these they meet the eternal talent-scout Sam Rosenthal, who later gets back in touch with them through a mutual friend of Scott Ferrell's. Impressed by their music, he invites them to join the Projekt roster, the most important label on the American dark-gothic scene.

Energized by this new milestone, the duo release their second album in 2004, marking their debut for the Brooklyn label as well as their first step toward launching into the universe of the "big leagues". Over The Ocean keeps the purely acoustic foundation of the sound, but abandons any folk leanings in favor of a pure, crystalline form of dream-pop, drawing heavily on the vivid dreams of Cranes. The melodies begin to drift toward a heavenly dimension, while still keeping, here and there, ties to earthly memory. Electronics make their entrance on tiptoe, alongside a guitar style increasingly inspired by the evergreen Robin Guthrie. The result is a fluid, melancholy record, a direct evolution of its predecessor's sound, realized in tracks like the fervent opener “Waning Faithful”, the Twins-indebted “New Dawn”, and the lullaby “Memory Chambers”.

While the mood of the debut is echoed in the delicacy of “The Sadness Of Year Past”, the "dream" begins to take on an increasingly fuller, more personal shape compared to that sound: proof of this comes in the emphatic “Mistify” – the duo's first track to put electric guitar front and center – the majestic “Deserted And Desolate”, and the closing title track, a livid shade brought to life by one of the iciest vocal lines in their entire output.

Over The Ocean keeps its promise, launching the name Autumn's Grey Solace straight into the world of dream-pop, even if, on the whole, it's an album resting on fairly conventional sonorities. It's a transitional record between the "homemade" experience of Within The Depths Of A Darkened Forest and the leap into the big leagues that would soon follow.

Less than a year later, in fact, the duo release their second album for Projekt, which would also prove to be their breakthrough record and the first peak of their output. Riverine stands as a genuine manifesto for the band, marking a decisive step in personalizing their own sound. The primary reference point is no longer Cranes, but rather the Cocteau Twins of “Head Over Heels” and “Garlands”. Ferrell is now a thoroughgoing multi-instrumentalist, and Welton's voice, as she herself has admitted, has broken through the tonal limits of the first two records, reaching a far wider range: "I gained a lot more confidence, which allowed me to evolve. My lungs are stronger now, and that's given more power to my voice". Another major novelty is the substantial arrival of electronics, in the form of synthetic strings and suspended keyboard soundscapes, crucial to the thoroughly dreamlike framework that pervades the album's tracks.

The livid ballad “Human Shell”, which opens the proceedings, and the sweet “Sorrow Ashes” serve as bridges between past and present: acoustic guitar and voice are underpinned by a swarm of ethereal reverb, which rises to the forefront on the evocative “Dormant”, where the debt to the Fraser-Guthrie pairing becomes even more evident. “Cold And Empty Costellations” carries the dream into a framework closer to rock, while “The Unshakable Demon” gives itself over to an unprecedented gothic-tinged scenario.

The remaining tracks, meanwhile, interpret the formula with a more distinctly pop-leaning touch: such is the case with gems like the closing “Inward Bound”, the languid “Eclipse”, and the acoustic “Outlive”.

Riverine is the true crossroads in Autumn's Grey Solace's career: having completed their transformation from nostalgic recyclers into an established name on the modern dream-pop scene, the record acts as a kind of new starting point, one from which the pair would nonetheless drift away almost immediately, only to return to it later with newfound maturity, producing the most accomplished chapter of their entire career.

The gothic turn and the move toward rock

“The album (Shades Of Grey, ed.) is varied inside. Most of the songs have a Cocteau Twins-like style, but others are darker and heavier. Then there are quiet ballads like “Edge Of The World”, but it's definitely a work that's profoundly different from our previous ones. We try to evolve musically with every album. We've released four albums in four years, so I already consider that a considerable evolution on our part.”

(Scott Ferrell)

Autumn's Grey Solace's fourth album arrives in 2006 and is titled Shades Of Grey. After releasing three works each more powerful than the last, the duo decides to break with the past and veer toward a rock-oriented dimension, born of the ethno-gothic of Arcana and Unto Ashes and far removed from the airy, dreamy atmosphere of Riverine. The entire sonic framework shifts drastically: the guitars grow heavier and more distorted, the drums more prominent and weighty. Welton's voice settles into decidedly lower registers than before, setting aside ethereal vocalizing in favor of sad, melancholy lyrics. The new formula, however, fails to strike deep or move the listener as the original one did, delivering a well-made work that nonetheless lacks the emotional charge needed to hold up against its predecessors.

Thus the unsettling “Last Tear”, the dark “Cold Sea”, the emphatic “In The Darkest Night” and the mystical “Treasure Box” attempt to turn the “dream” into a nightmare, darkening the sonic weave and leaving behind heavenly melodies and serenity. The result, however, falls well short of these intentions: the “turn” doesn't seem to suit the duo, who fail in these tracks to achieve the evocative impact they were after.

The best results come when Welton and Ferrell dip back into the recent past: such is the case with the carefree title track, the “light” “Fodderwing” and the suspended “Still”, the only plausible outtake from Riverine. “Angel Of Light” reinterprets those sounds in a rock key, foreshadowing the sound of their next work, while “Edge Of The World” tries to apply the fabric of the “new sound” to the compositional framework of the past, failing spectacularly in the attempt.

Shades Of Grey is, on the whole, an unfinished album, one that tries to force an unnecessary turn in the band's music just when it seemed to have found its purest, most personal expression. To this day, it stands as the only true misstep in an otherwise nearly flawless career path.

The setback to the duo's dizzying rise seems to have had repercussions for the project's plans. Scott Ferrell and Erik Welton thus decide to take more time to develop the many ideas that had already emerged during the Shades Of Grey sessions. In an interview given to present the album, in fact, Welton herself admits the turn that's coming: “The new album will see us return to the dream-wave territory of Cocteau Twins, but with more of a rock edge”.

Having set aside darkness and gothic detours, the duo thus picks back up from the dream they had interrupted on Riverine: but while back then that dream was represented by frail, colorful atmospheres, its new interpretation draws more on the rhythmic-sonic framework of pure rock, with the result of sounding incredibly “earthbound” compared to the intangible dimension of their first three albums.

The project takes shape in Ablaze, the record that relaunches Autumn's Grey Solace's name and marks the resumption of the path previously interrupted. The new formula gains in consistency and conciseness what it loses in evocative power, freeing Welton's voice from electronics and showcasing, more than ever before, Ferrell's remarkable talent for single-handedly and masterfully handling the arsenal of a classic rock quartet. The result is a sunny, luminous album, as well as the most “summery” and lively in their discography: the candid languor of “Fluttermoth”, the vivid invocation of “Immortal Muse” and the sugary gallops of “Endlessly” and “Imaginary Grey” are proof enough of that.

Linking back to their now-forgotten acoustic past are the gypsy-like arpeggios of “Sea Of Honestly” and the rarefied finale of the wonderful “Angelspeak”, while the sinister embroidery of “The Moon Nocturnal” and the ethereal-macabre energy of “A Rythm That Writhes” successfully revisit the dark settings of Shades Of Grey, managing to leave behind sudden swerves and excesses of ambition.

The trio “Into The Scream”-“Tusk”-“Eternal Light” deserves a separate mention: these are the first tracks to display an exquisitely dream-pop skin, in the formula that would later be explored in depth in subsequent works and which, here too, leads to the best results. It's the direct evolution of the Riverine recipe, where acoustic guitars and grace give way to hazy settings and pure, unfiltered atmosphere.

With Ablaze, Autumn's Grey Solace pick themselves back up, delivering a record that, in hindsight, proves more important as a turning point marking the transition from the first to the second phase of their career. Taken on its own terms, the album is a work of remarkable caliber, built on a sound, a consistency and a directness entirely new to them, making it the duo's most accessible record.

Artistic maturity and the return of the dream

“Recently I've discovered Violet Indiana, Soul Whirling Somewhere, Lycia, and Love Spirals Downwards. I think I also took a lot from the latter for our seventh record (Eifelian, ed.), it's a new path, and much more dreamlike than our previous work”

(Scott Ferrell)

Today we know Autumn's Grey Solace as one of the most important bands in contemporary ethereal-wave. But the road that led them to forge their formula was marked, as we've seen, by varied twists and turns, some quite far removed from the direction the project would ultimately take. Setting aside Shades Of Grey, a genuine exception in their discography, the process started from a frail, dreamy acoustic pop, evolving album by album from an embryonic stage (Over The Ocean) to a fully realized one (Riverine), until arriving at its new dimension on Ablaze, with dream elements overtaking the pop ones and the legacy of Cocteau Twins eclipsing that of Cranes in terms of influence. But for the decisive leap, the pair took as long as three years away from studios and stages. “You won't easily see us playing in crowded, smoky venues. Erin needs clean air to produce the pure sounds of her voice. We'd gladly play in large spaces or outdoors if we had the chance,” Ferrell confesses, explaining the reasons behind the duo's extremely limited live activity (just one tour, following Over The Ocean).

And so, in 2011, the band's highly anticipated seventh album arrives, an ideal landing point in the search for a personal sound: of their past experiences, only the dreamy atmosphere remains, which also becomes the primary sonic source, even at the expense of their recent flirtations with gothic and rock. But the record is also the first fruit of Ferrell and Welton's maturity, now absolute masters of their craft and their highly distinctive music. The new Autumn's Grey Solace are thus, at last, a genuine ethereal-wave band, far closer to Love Spirals Downwards than to Slowdive. Electronics are now the primary means of building atmosphere, the rhythm is stretched out, and there's no trace of Ablaze's rock edge nor of the carefree spirit of their early work. The result is a full fourteen soft, suspended watercolors, which for the first time lead into a genuine parallel universe: the authentic universe of the dream.

Where Riverine and its predecessors were content to merely score the chronicles of sleep, Eifelian dives fully into them, delivering gems of suggestion like the seductive "Devonian Serene," the abstract "Archean Earth," and the lulling chronicles of "Holocene" and "Fauna." Contact with the world of rock is almost imperceptible, limited to a mere quickening of tempo in the episodes closest to the Cocteau Twins of "Head Over Heels," such as the arcane "Faint Young Sun," the more sinister "Unfamiliar Spirits," and the marvelous title track, one of the most beautiful songs the pair have ever written.

Across the record's 14 tracks you can feel a new energy, which does full justice to the talent of Ferrell and Welton. Eifelian is thus the mature statement of Autumn's Grey Solace and one of their most accomplished works, surpassed only by its majestic successor.

If that record set the deeply personal sonic standard of Autumn's Grey Solace, it's the duo's eighth album, released in 2012, that confirms it and brings it to its fullest expression, standing as the as-yet-unmatched peak of their career. Compared to its predecessor, Divinian is marked by a greater ambient impact, a sonic rarefaction that further enriches the pair's sound, combined with a return to the grace and sweetness of their earliest work. It's the latest evolution, gathering the best of what was sown in previous incarnations, as well as the purest expression of the "dream" set in motion with Eifelian.

The album opens with the languid blend of stretched, rarefied drones of "Shadow, Light, Echo," followed shortly after by the ethereal synths of the stunning "Nífara" and the bath of serenity that is "Sáwol." Melancholy and placid torpor take hold of the vocalizations on "Meremennen," a highlight of incredible intensity, as does the prayer-like "Écelic."

The fresco of "Sanctuary" and the electric guitar of "Unravel" focus on the purely spiritual side of the dream. The masterpiece materializes in the motionless catharsis of the title track, perhaps the emotional peak of their entire career, before giving way to the ambient depths of "Summered And Flowered" and the hymn to joy that is "Halo," the only track where the soundscape breaks open to give us an acoustic glimpse reminiscent of the Riverine days.

Closing things out are the stunning instrumental catharsis of "Zenith" and the serene farewell of "Síscéal," which bid us goodbye on ethereal notes after one of the most moving offerings in all of ethereal-wave.

Divinian, even before being an album, is a journey into a perfect world that only listening can render in full. It's the most accomplished Autumn's Grey Solace album, the most ethereal and relaxed, the most intimate, evocative and personal, and also the hardest to pin down with a single definition. It is without a doubt the duo's masterpiece, the evolution toward abstraction of the personality that emerged on Eifelian, and the most intense and heartfelt chapter of the "dream."

In 2012, Scott Ferrell and Erin Welton celebrated ten years of their shared venture. And it's the multi-instrumentalist who once again underscores the peculiar nature of the duo, which has kept their music untouchable and intangible: "On all our albums we do everything ourselves; our chemistry has always worked precisely because of that. We've always been free to choose where and how to move."

Through their various incarnations, Autumn's Grey Solace have become one of the cornerstone acts of today's dream-pop scene, a scene often accused of merely recycling the genre's historic names. The duo answers such claims with facts, continuing on their path under the banner of the "dream": the one Ferrell and Welton have lived uninterrupted for ten years, but also the one it's impossible not to lose yourself in while listening to their last two records. How they manage to do this will probably remain a secret forever, since any confession would risk an awakening that one hopes comes as late as possible. For now, all that's left to do is keep letting yourself be carried away, delighted by a pure, extraordinary voice and an ensemble of instruments always ready to surround and complete it.