The Round Window – Fram EP
Essex based band The Round Window, built around the familial core of singer/songwriter Richard Lock and his sons Thomas (keys, vocals) and Jack (drums, vocals) Lock, have delivered two albums of progressively sculpted widescreen soft-rock, both worthy of more attention than they inavriably got (such is the usually more successful formulaic or ‘sounds like’ musical environment we now find ourselves in).
As with previous album Everywhere & Nowhere, which carried a lyrical theme of duality and conflict (but with hope and optimism to the fore), new 3-track EP Fram also has a story to tell, one that, to quote from the scene setting notes:
"invites the listener to gaze through the spyglass beyond the flickering candlelight… to where reflection, peace and hope for a brighter future hang suspended in the stillness."
Each of the three songs carries its own story within that narrative – a man standing in a time of calm before receiving the worst news imaginable; a ship crashing through the waves to its limits before returning home for the crew to contemplate success and failure; a final flicker of the candle and the passage of years – could we do more and, indeed, do we yearn for more?
Now, there’s a lot going on in there, lyrically/ thematically, for a 3-track EP, but the band, bolstered by a trio of guest guitarists, have the soft-prog/ widescreen credentials (and twenty-three EP minutes) to back up such thought-provoking lyricism, delivered by the considered phrasing and wonderfully lamenting voice of Rich Young.
Eleven minute opener 'The Silence' intros with the tolling of a bell followed by a delicate piano & string effect passage. The rhythm section then flits in and out of a sombre, scene setting, first vocal section ("Father, dear father, the peace is deafening; the absence of the lightning bearing death upon the wind").
A tastefully melodic guitar then calls out, answered by another, blues-crying lead (Per Malberg is the featured six-stringer here, with additional guitars from Christopher Wilkinson).
A short, almost hymnal section then sets up a bigger vocal section where Rich Lock (first with choral effect backing, then more melodic guitar work) hits the soaring highs.
The song closes out on a further tolling of the bell and piano, which seems to reflect on times past, and those lost.
The title track is a slow to mid-tempo atmospheric that mixes nicely arranged synth keys & piano with soft-rock and some delicate, melodic guitar interplay from Robin Armstrong (who also plays bass on 'The Silence').
"Where do we go now?" wistfully considers Rich Lock, backed by some nice drum and fill work from Jack Lock, before providing the answer – "sailing alone… out into the blue, out into the new!"
Following its classical styled piano opening 'Hourglass' settles itself into, initially, a slow ballad that considers the passage of time ("The fire is burning low, the candle flickers, we’ve come to the end of another year…").
Interwoven with the guitar work of Gareth Cole (who manages to conjure the blues of time on his two lead moments) and bass from Alistair Martin (who contributes same on 'Fram') the song shifts to an uplifting instrumental section before Rich Lock emotively expresses how we make the most of our time ("with the hourglass we live and dream, with the hourglass we play out all our schemes").
The song ends as delicately as it opened with Thomas Lock’s sparing but effective use of the piano keys.
Fram is not as immediate as the majority of the songs on the band’s previous albums; it requires nay, demands, repeated listens to fully appreciate, and hear, the ambient and softer shaded nuances.
Those who persevere (or have a penchant for atmospheric soft-rock) will find Fram to be as deceptively uplifting in its musical melancholy as it is melodically moving.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Fram is a limited release available from the 29th November at: theroundwindow.bandcamp.com (CD & Digital) and https://www.gravitydream.co.uk/product/theroundwindow-fram/ (CD)
The Round Window will be performing at The Three Wise Monkeys, Colchester on 29th December, with special guests Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate.
More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2247218965627122
Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-round-window
As with previous album Everywhere & Nowhere, which carried a lyrical theme of duality and conflict (but with hope and optimism to the fore), new 3-track EP Fram also has a story to tell, one that, to quote from the scene setting notes:
"invites the listener to gaze through the spyglass beyond the flickering candlelight… to where reflection, peace and hope for a brighter future hang suspended in the stillness."
Each of the three songs carries its own story within that narrative – a man standing in a time of calm before receiving the worst news imaginable; a ship crashing through the waves to its limits before returning home for the crew to contemplate success and failure; a final flicker of the candle and the passage of years – could we do more and, indeed, do we yearn for more?
Now, there’s a lot going on in there, lyrically/ thematically, for a 3-track EP, but the band, bolstered by a trio of guest guitarists, have the soft-prog/ widescreen credentials (and twenty-three EP minutes) to back up such thought-provoking lyricism, delivered by the considered phrasing and wonderfully lamenting voice of Rich Young.
Eleven minute opener 'The Silence' intros with the tolling of a bell followed by a delicate piano & string effect passage. The rhythm section then flits in and out of a sombre, scene setting, first vocal section ("Father, dear father, the peace is deafening; the absence of the lightning bearing death upon the wind").
A tastefully melodic guitar then calls out, answered by another, blues-crying lead (Per Malberg is the featured six-stringer here, with additional guitars from Christopher Wilkinson).
A short, almost hymnal section then sets up a bigger vocal section where Rich Lock (first with choral effect backing, then more melodic guitar work) hits the soaring highs.
The song closes out on a further tolling of the bell and piano, which seems to reflect on times past, and those lost.
The title track is a slow to mid-tempo atmospheric that mixes nicely arranged synth keys & piano with soft-rock and some delicate, melodic guitar interplay from Robin Armstrong (who also plays bass on 'The Silence').
"Where do we go now?" wistfully considers Rich Lock, backed by some nice drum and fill work from Jack Lock, before providing the answer – "sailing alone… out into the blue, out into the new!"
Following its classical styled piano opening 'Hourglass' settles itself into, initially, a slow ballad that considers the passage of time ("The fire is burning low, the candle flickers, we’ve come to the end of another year…").
Interwoven with the guitar work of Gareth Cole (who manages to conjure the blues of time on his two lead moments) and bass from Alistair Martin (who contributes same on 'Fram') the song shifts to an uplifting instrumental section before Rich Lock emotively expresses how we make the most of our time ("with the hourglass we live and dream, with the hourglass we play out all our schemes").
The song ends as delicately as it opened with Thomas Lock’s sparing but effective use of the piano keys.
Fram is not as immediate as the majority of the songs on the band’s previous albums; it requires nay, demands, repeated listens to fully appreciate, and hear, the ambient and softer shaded nuances.
Those who persevere (or have a penchant for atmospheric soft-rock) will find Fram to be as deceptively uplifting in its musical melancholy as it is melodically moving.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Fram is a limited release available from the 29th November at: theroundwindow.bandcamp.com (CD & Digital) and https://www.gravitydream.co.uk/product/theroundwindow-fram/ (CD)
The Round Window will be performing at The Three Wise Monkeys, Colchester on 29th December, with special guests Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate.
More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2247218965627122
Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-round-window