Matt Elliott – Farewell to All we Know (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:11 minutes | 358 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ici d’ailleurs
There are records with empathy, records which are your friends and then there’s the others… There might be little difference between them, a certain »je ne sais quoi«, an »almost nothing but still something« which makes the difference between almost pointless and vital records. Despite, or rather thanks to his cynical despair, Matt Elliott’s music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us – on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one.
Read more
Matt Elliott – The End of Days (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:54 minutes | 495 MB | Genre: Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ici d’ailleurs
On the ninth solo album from the French-based British musician behind Third Eye Foundation, it is near impossible not to draw comparisons to the late great bard Leonard Cohen. Elliott’s accomplished Spanish infused guitar craft further adds to the resemblance. Although it remains rooted in darkness, Elliott’s approach to folk is also rich with a sense of warmth folk, embellished with gorgeous classical arrangements of composer David Chalmin, Gaspar Claus’ cello, and Jeff Hallam’s bass. Of course, one could file Matt Elliott in one genre or another. While “Folk” appears to be the general consensus, the Englishman would be more in line with a long runningtradition of lamentation songs that can be found on every single continent. Whether it is Greek rebetic songs, Portuguese Fado, Delta Blues, Balkan fanfares, Yiddish melancholy and Cape Verdean Saudade, you can hear it all in Matt Elliott’s music. Those are the songs of an uprooted and stateless artist, a true musical storyteller who’s voice had never felt so free, rough and sincere. Like not other, on “The End Of Days”, Matt Elliot sings the infinitely small space that lies in-between intense joy and absolute sorrow, sitting on a fence at the border that separates the unspeakable and what is shared.
Read more