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Durant, Jon: Parting Is

Parting Is… well according to solo guitarist Jon Durant, parting is sweet sorrow; the inspiration from this album coming from the passing of time, the changes in life and the temporary goodbyes it brings. With his sons growing up and spending less time at home and Jon himself using a second home as a base to record much of this album, the composer also found himself saying farewell to his wife, as she headed back to ‘normal life’ while Jon used his self enforced isolation to craft his music.

The start to these days would usually find the guitarist creating loops and then playing guitar over them, but not really with the intention of turning those specific pieces into an album. It wasn’t until a friend of Jon’s heard one of the recordings and suggested he really should do more, that the seed was sown and Parting Is began to form.

To Jon’s credit, many people claim that their take on ‘the guitar album’ is a little different to anyone else’s and while that’s not something that this musician has said about this collection, if he had, he’d be surprisingly accurate. Before he brought this album into being Jon began deconstructing the very loops that gave birth to the pieces he composed, leaving much of the results feeling, well, not structureless, but certainly without the constraint of expected form. In fact much of what remains - which is all Durant and his guitar, or fretless bass - doesn’t even sound like guitar at all, with synth like textures creating the atmosphere of what is a truly personal journey. Parting Is, through its very reason for being a melancholy collection and one full of introspection, however, it never leaves you on the outside looking in. Instead this album gently takes your hand and invites you to let go of the every day world as it floats you through emotions that we can all relate to in one way or another.

Giving a track by track rundown feels somewhat counterproductive, titles such as “Travels Within”, “The Room Where She Waits” and “Returning To The Departure” leaving little doubt that this is an experience to be soaked up in one sitting. And certainly to me, not a collection that will readily lend itself to the more modern ‘playlist’ approach. However, that aspect is a real strength of Parting Is, this album able to gently impose its overarching themes on you as it reveals despair and hope in equal measure. Resulting in an experience more to do with deep contemplation than it is about merely listening to a collection of music.


Track Listing
1. Clouds In Advance
2. Open Window
3. Travels Within
4. The Room Where She Waits
5. Before the Rain Falls
6. Evolve in Place
7. Ecliptic Shadows
8. Returning to the Departure
9. Wilamette Fog

Added: July 24th 2018
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Parting Is @ bandcamp
Hits: 922
Language: english

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