released September 10, 2021

ALEC WOOD- GUITAR, ORGAN, PERCUSSION

JONATHAN PARKES- PERCUSSION, DRUMS, SYNTH, BASS

CHRIS BARBER- SAXOPHONE, CLARINET

BEN CRAIG- KEYBOARDS

BENJAMIN LEE- CELLO

MARK OLDHAM- FLUGELHORN, TROMBONE

TIM MAWER- GUITAR ON BELLE DE NUIT

JAMES WALLACE- GUITAR ON TONIGHT (PART 2)

PRODUCED BY ALEC WOOD
MASTERED BY JOHN McBAIN
ART/PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARBORIA
LAYOUT & DESIGN BY JORDAN WARRE

Review of Arboria II by Flam and Flange/Slap Mag

'Arboria 2 then, how can we best describe it to you? The first thing we’d say is this is a proper ALBUM. It’s fully formed and it works on many levels. You can pick individual tracks out of it and they’re all fantastic in their own right, but the album works best as a whole, from start to finish. It’s clearly very well planned and thought out. Extra care an attention has been placed in to the order of the tunes on the album so that you get the musical story going from start to finish. Every tunes is quiet, calm and beautifully crafted and composed, but yet some how it’s visceral, the imagination just goes crazy with colours shapes and feelings. Forgotten memories. Dreamlike cinematics. We do not suggest you listen to this while driving though, especially at night.

Looking at a few of our favourite tracks on the Album….

Track 3 – Devotion

Luke – This has that sleepy time feel, like Moon Safari, or Cinematic Orchestra… it reminds me of those 60/70s Hippy films. It remind me of the film Pink Floyd did the soundtrack for, Hole, but that made the mistake of sticking a loud punk track in the middle, where this takes you through right through to the end with no surprises.

Stu – This is a brilliant development from the first album. While it was a great album there was a feeling that they only took the ideas to a certain point, where as this album they’re really delving into those ideas a lot further, really exploring the movements and transitions from one section of music to another. This feel a lot more involved.

Luke – The whole thing feels like they’ve been working very closely with each other, but they probably weren’t even in the same room, the talented bastards.

Track 8 – Tonight at Rodon Parts 1&2

Luke – This tune is interesting because it almost sounds like it has vocals [in the second part] but it’s actually the guitar. It’s that expressive.

Stu – Yes it’s played with a lot of passion. The guitar is excellent. It gives me a kind of broken heart feeling, real melancholy. Hats off to James Wallace. The first part is interesting too, we were trying to work out the synths they were using, we thought maybe some Korgs used in there.

Luke – Yeah definitely a Korg with the higher tones.

Stu – Yeah the whole track is very clever because the two parts work perfectly together, like a question and answer almost.

Luke – Exactly, it’s like you almost can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. I find that with the whole album it blends together perfectly across the tracks.

Track 12 – Moonbathing

Luke – What does moonbathing mean to you?

Stu – Well moonbathing could mean many things…

Luke – Yeah but what does it mean to you?

Stu – [some nonsense about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin needing a wash after long hours of space travel]

Luke – It does have a really nice jazzy feel to it. Very chilled. I tell you now, if you haven’t seen the artwork for the album yet, then listening to this track, what you’re imagining and picturing in your mind, that’s what it looks like. Just like the music they’ve put so much time in to the artwork, the images, the colouring, the fonts. It’s amazing. If you came across it in a record fair bin you would buy it just on the look of it.

Track 5 – Naked

Stu – We reviewed this one before on the show. I like this one, it has a real cinematic quality to it. You can hear real tension in the music.

Luke – Yeah like The Wicker Man, it’s got quite a sinister tone to it. It’s almost scary.

Track 7 – Everything Is A Gift

Stu – A beautiful track, if you listen to the track what really stands out is the Cello, without standing out, if that makes sense? It really adds a great dimension to the sound. Cello has that tone that just add something to it that no other instrument would.

Luke – The whole thing is fantastic. I can’t say anything nicer about it really!

We’re really grateful to Alec and Jon letting us have an early preview of this album. It’s a pleasure to listen to and like the first album it’s going to feature heavily in our personal playlists. We can’t do it justice with our impressions of it, simply to say that this is an exercise in musical mastery and should be bought by everyone, just on faith. At the end of the day, when you listen to this, the world will make sense again.'