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Rivulets - You Are My Home (O Rosa)
UK release date: 11 August 2008
3-5 stars
Rivulets - You Are My Home

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track listing

1. Glass Houses
2. Can't I Wonder
3. You Are My Home
4. Heartless
5. Motioning
6. Green House
7. Win or Lose
8. To Be Home
9. You Sail On
10. Happy Ending
11. Morning Light

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The soft and serene Nathan Amunson, Mr Rivulets himself, is a wandering soul. He has been travelling through America since he was just 16, leaving his Alaskan home far behind him. This sense of moving on, of being unsettled, even feeling unwelcome, is clear as day on his album, poignantly titled You Are My Home.

It's beautiful, but has a real edgy side - a dark and unnerving side. It's as if the colourful rainbow is being overshadowed by a dark thunder cloud. Take second track Can't I wonder. It has a childlike melody, but behind the softness is a mass of distortion, almost like white noise. It's subtle, and that's the magic. His calmness escalates into chaos by the end in a wonderful outburst of passion, like the quite kid at school going on a rampage and setting fire to all his maths books.

Amunson's voice is frequently described as fragile, and the same could be said for his song writing. His songs are so achingly delicate, they feel like ancient vases in your hands. Those where Amunson's cracking voice sits over a deep and throbbing cello or gloopy lone violin can bring tears to your eyes, like title track You Are My Home.

It's bizarre to think this stranger in the shadows has supported the likes of CocoRosie and My Morning Jacket - bands with such huge personalities and egos. His songs would either bore the audience to misery or captivate them so much that the main show would almost be a non-entity. It's one of those either ors depending on personal taste. But if your record collection is made up of the likes of Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Vashti Bunyan, then you're on to a winner with this one.

What's great with this album is the use of silence or minimal sound next to a crash of noise. You almost think the album has ended had way through. What seems like an eternity of nothing suddenly breaks into the lovely Win Or Lose. It's a treat and a delight to know that you have more in store.

Other gems are To Be Home and You Sail On, with their roomy, double tracked vocals sounding like Amunson is performing at the end of your bed. By the end, some could get bored of the tweeness and the melancholy, but if you're one for simple melody, uplifting tunes with deep messages and beautiful, understated strings, you'll love it.

It's not ground-breaking and it's not like this sort of trembling, folky, quite-as-a-mouse-ness hasn't been done before, but Amunson has done a good job and the end result is really, really nice.


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