Best of 2019 #13: Minua – “Still Light”

 

Back in February when I originally recommended Still Light, I said it was waaaaaaay too soon to be making proclamations like This is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard all year.  Except, I was right.  It was and it is.  And now that a year has passed since I first opened my ears to this lovely recording, a year spent listening to this album over and over and over again, I’m now even more assured in my assessment that the Minua trio’s Still Light is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve heard this year, maybe the most gorgeous, and I expect my opinion will be shared by many others.  The trio of bass clarinetist Fabian Willmann and guitarists Luca Aaron and Kristinn Kristinsson treat the influences of Scandinavian folk, ambient minimalism, Nordic jazz, and a dash of post-rock melodicism as if merely fluctuations of shadows dancing between the rays of sunrise.  And this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard all year.

Your album personnel:  Fabian Willmann (bass clarinet), Kristinn Kristinsson (guitar) and Luca Aaron (guitar).

Released on Traumton Records.

Music from Nantes, France.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  BandcampAmazon