LINDSAY ANDERSON - Forgiving

After almost twenty years, it's good to see that this creative gamble, which saw the Chicago duo dare to cross the boundaries of post-rock by reconciling dream-folk and slowcore, was no fleeting artistic spark, but the fruit of a sensibility and talent that Lindsay Anderson now renews with an intense collection of songs inspired by the surrealist paintings of Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, a work the artist hopes to eventually bring to the stage as a multimedia show blending music and painting.

"Forgiving" is an album that forces you into a constant conceptual and emotional reset, a succession of surges and caresses that never come across as random or overly disordered - if anything, they seem almost austere in their winding sequence.

Twelve songs alternating elegant pop songs ("The Wolf") with forays into jazz-rock ("Release Me"), with a stylistic coherence that allows the artist to dare more complex sonic solutions ("Wild Love") and emotionally powerful ones ("Narcissus"), never losing that creative balance tied to a broader vision, one that includes not just the musical element but the visual one too.

"Forgiving" has all the hallmarks of a project open to many readings. Live performances will undoubtedly add further depth to Lindsay Anderson's work, but in the meantime it's quite a pleasure to indulge in the sprightly swing-pop-jazz of "Transmitted To The Underworld", the intangible ethereal charm of "Map Room", and the languid psychedelic blues, almost Pink Floyd-esque, of "Down Below".