Seaming To’s sophomore solo album, Dust Gatherers, finds its focus in the artist’s celestial voice. The musical accompaniment throughout is unobtrusive, ambient even. Seaming’s own piano, analog synths, and glockenspiel, joined on occasion by strings, double bass, pedal steel and slide guitar. There’s a quartet on Hitchhiker. However, the instrumental backing is always super minimal. Dancing stars. Shafts of moonlight. On Tousles it’s a rippling rhythm of pizzicato patterns. In places both vocals and machines emit theremin-like frequencies. Tenderly is just a clarinet and electrons. Sonic touchstones would be cult Czech horror scores, and / or the river boat sequence from Charles Laughton’s Night Of The Hunter. Only on Traveller does the orchestrated, enchanted, elegance erupt into chaos and noise. 

That voice, though. I kept thinking of the phrase that David Toop coined, “Crooning on Venus”. Here that description is perfect. The heavenly multi-tracked harmonies sound as if they have indeed been beamed in from somewhere alien. If not from outer space, then from simpler, more innocent times. Seaming cast as a 1930s, `40s cinematic heroine. Caught in the spotlight, her crystalline, cut-glass, Queen’s English accent enunciating hymns to connection. Prayers in praise of love. Plus a little longing. 

The set appears to be a celebration of song, and has the feel of a stage show. An operetta whose narrative moves from jazz-inflected ballads, to magical, mesmerizing, ethereal emissions, then witchy Grimm fairytale whispers, and on Xenanmax, high-pitched shrieks. Having seen the striking publicity shots, all the while listening, I was wondering what a live performance would be like. How many costume changes Seaming To’d get through. 

Seaming To’s Dust Gatherers is released this Friday, February 10th. You can purchase a copy, direct from the artist, via Bandcamp.