Is it not the way of things these days? Things get lost and then found often years after they were thought forever misplaced and forgotten. However, music, as we all know, never truly gets lost but merely hides in the cupboard under the stairs to await future rediscovery and reissue and such would appear to be the case for “Graceful Consolations” by The Winter Journey.
As the word on the street is that the songs on this album were recorded between 2011 and 2014, it was probably time for the sun to shine on them once more. That said, there isn’t really anything obvious to indicate which period these twelve songs do actually come from with cues from the sixties folk revival all the way through to lounge doing their bit to reinforce the illusion of timelessness and The Winter Journey - Anthony Braithwaite and Suzy Mangion – exude, for the most part, the kind of melancholy that only English folk musicians can bring to the table yet this album that is clearly more a personal statement than an attempt to entrap the ears and wallets of the many bearded bookers of roots festivals.
The result is therefore curiously entrancing in that existential way that only music that is forever running parallel to its motivations can be and, whilst often serious, “Graceful Consolidations” also has its playful diversions with stylistic sidetracks like recording “Little Consolation” on a wax cylinder or exorcising the spirit of the Mike Sammes Singers as a means of elevating the chorus of “The Way That You Are” to duly demonstrate that spirits that can run free can also smile.
The mind sometimes plays tricks, or so they say, and they might well be right. There is depth, width and emotional value to be found in “Graceful Consolations” and it is the mix of these three things that provide the resulting aural intoxication that soon diverts a man’s mind from the ways of the concrete world. Let us not forget either that there is also the, sometimes barely perceptible, voice of Suzy Mangion to remind you that not every witch should be burned at the stake. Not if she can spell anyway.
Available from Bandcamp (and the usual digital places). There might even be a physical limited edition with an accompanying art book.