Electronic Sound May 2015 (Regular Edition) | Page 35

like holding hands. This is followed by
‘SPS’, on which Anna Wise’s smooth,
pitch-perfect vocals continue to build
over a loose, slow beat. Sonnymoon
know how to romance the listener but
it’s not long before a darker sub-text
looms, with ‘Grains Of Friends’ stripping
away the colourful textures.

SONNYMOON

The Courage Of Present Times
GLOW365
A third collection of intricate and
beautiful music from the innovative
New Englanders
Surely the earth spun a little faster and
the sun winked when Anna Wise and
Dane Orr, otherwise known Sonnymoon,
met at the esteemed Berklee College
Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, all
those years ago. It’s no surprise that the
duo’s first two albums, each a heady and
irresistible mix of electronica, jazz, r&b
and avant-garde, thrilled and intrigued
critics on both sides of the pond.
With ‘The Courage Of Present Times’,
Sonnymoon have developed into
something a lot more accessible but
no less clever. It’s something that is
influenced by the character of the
different musical genres that make up
their sound, but the overall vibe here
is definitely electronic, particularly in
terms of the production and the artful
composition – and that includes the order
of the songs.
The opener, ‘Blue’, breaks like clouds
on a suddenly sunny day. Baby bunnies
poke their heads out of their burrows and
bounce across grassy green meadows,
birds sing sweetly, and everyone feels

Every track thereafter takes you a step
further into Sonnymoon’s world, and
more and more the songs become a
living art, a comment on Our Times,
although not in a concrete lyrical way.
Instead, it comes from the intricacy
of Dane Orr’s instrumentations, giving
Wise’s words a fascinating context, most
notably on ‘Pop Music’ and on ‘For Right
Now’, which is busy, loud, and then
disappears, just like that.
The exception is ‘Sex For Clicks’, Wise
singing quietly and mindfully, verse by
verse, two lines always repeated: “And
they’re all falling for it / No one is really
listening at all”. It’s a comment on
internet pornography and it is painful
to hear the words, which are laid bare

by the accompaniment of a solitary
piano. The musical restraint emphasises
what is clearly a burning passion to
communicate. By contrast, ‘Only Face’
gives Wise a chance to sing her heart
out in a traditional sense – and it’s a
wonderful thing.
Sonnymoon’s previous albums were
capricious yet amusing and charming
house guests, but ‘The Courage Of
Present Times’ is less trippy and more
of a journey. The witty twists and wrong
turns are not just there to check you
are listening, they also contribute to
an unfolding narrative. Whatever Dane
Orr’s treatment, it is never over-egged or
unreasonably unusual and Anna Wise’s
voice always has a warm, welcoming
tone, although she uses it differently in
every track.
This duo will never be predictable as
artists, but the odds are they will always
produce beautiful music.
NGAIRE RUTH