Gilmore Trail are an instrumental rock band from Sheffield, consisting of Bob Brown on drums, David Ivall and Danny Mills on guitar, and Joe Richards on bass. Formed by Mills and original drummer Sam Ainger, the band is named after a trail in Alaska, a route recommended for best experiencing the Northern Lights. Their music has been described as bearing both the intricacy of progressive rock and the atmosphere of post-rock. The band’s first release was the “Circle of Least Confusion” EP just over a decade ago. Since then, they have released two albums
`Sailing Stones` and `The Floating World`, a single `Twin Peaks` and now their third album ‘Impermanence’ is out this month. A record about change, transition, and uncertainty, the seven tracks of ‘Impermanence’ each respond to these core themes with songs inspired by legacy, family, history, philosophy, and the natural world.
The album opens with `Ruins` which is a personal reflection on where the band stood as their drummer left and things didn`t seem that hopeful. It opens quietly with some intricate guitar chords almost layered atop a guiding drum base. It picks up pace as if heading to war and there is a section, a kind of respite midway as almost in anticipation of what`s to follow. The final part is more belligerent almost a reconciliation of what has happened, accepting where they find themselves and unified to challenge what the future holds. A number that i`m sure they found quite cathartic.
I read that `Distant Reflection` is a rumination on devastating family losses to dementia. It begins quite mesmerisingly with a rolled drum beat and distant guitar chord riffs. It then builds in volume and structure in the latter segment before almost fading out, a quite reflective piece. Sally Blyth (a sound practitioner in Sheffield) provided singing bowls signatures.
`Convalescence` is a brief quite reflective soundscape, a quite recuperative offering as the title suggests. The band took inspiration for `Echoes Of Solitude` from the 52-hertz Whale. One of the natural world’s most beautiful and mysterious living wonders, better known as ‘the lonely whale`. The marine mammal sings at a pitch its peers will never be able to understand and is destined to explore the deep alone for its entire lifetime. As it begins it seems to reflect the solitude of this creature with synthesiser hues before grinding guitars join in and it becomes a little more tumultuous. At the mid pint we hear waves breaking, followed by shimmering guitar chords which seem to express the forlorn nature of this mammal. We have dreamy saxophone swathes supplied by Martin Archer and what sounds like a chiming percussive triangle. The final minutes become a real cacophony of sound with some delightful saxophone undulations and grinding guitar riffs that really paints a picture of this loneliest creature on earth.
`The Zone Of Silence` (La Zona del Silencio) pays reference to a desert patch near the Bolsón de Mapimí in Durango. Mexico steeped in legends of magnetic anomalies and wildlife mutation. The track, like the area is quite an anomaly. It opens quite gently with a constant leading guitar riff and another more complex one alongside with a directing drum beat before becoming fairly dreamy and questioning. It then almost veers of to another world before gaining a urgent resonance with pounding drums and grinding guitar riffs almost akin to interference from outside. It almost halts before a reverberating bass line takes control and escorts us to safety and along a winding path of controlled sound.
The band have stated that ‘Nocturne’ represents a moment of calm. On the album, it follows the heaviest music we’ve ever written – as ‘The Zone of Silence’ reaches its peak, there was nothing left for us to do but seek shelter.”. The band continued, “We live in difficult times. ‘Nocturne’ is our reminder that even when surrounded by darkness, there’ll be light at the end if you can weather the storm. Nothing lasts forever, so we hope it provides a few minutes of peace.” The track begins with a crack of thunder before tenderly shared almost shimmering guitar chords and what sounds like some orchestrated string arrangement. Wonderfully ethereal and thought provoking.
Title track ‘Impermanence’ closes out this opus. I have to admit that i googled the word to discover that it refers to “the state or fact of lasting for only a limited period of time”. It seems to suggest something that`s always changing, undergoing rebirth and redeath. The track is a charmingly atmospheric composition which again opens softly, unfolds into a dreamy entrancing soundscape before bursting almost to life with a much more insistent tempo which continues until it ends abruptly.
I usually find instrumental albums too hard to review and if i`m honest I just delete them but something rally gelled with Gilmore Trail. The album isn`t a concept album but does have certain topics that are linked throughout. I found myself being drawn into the majority of the tracks shared, only to discover the number over and I’d just savoured nearly ten minutes almost in another dimension. There`s a wonderful contemplative ambience about ‘Impermanence’.
Make the time and effort to listen to ‘Impermanence’ it will certainly arouse your auditory senses.
Rating 9/10