Quiet, The Art are an Edinburgh-based duo who, true to their name, create beautiful, peaceful music. From where I sit in my music-bubble in the centre of England, I hadn't encountered them before, so I'm very happy that they dropped me an email recently, promoting their latest single (evidence that this approach does work - please keep on sending me your music 😀)
'Ghostly' is quite simply a lovely piece of art. It's chilled, carefully crafted, and refreshingly slow: a song you need to make proper space and time for; a song which reminds you of the importance of taking a breath.
Using some apparently simple instrumentation and lyrics, the duo - Mark Cameron and Chris Leslie, previous band mates and long term friends - have created something quite extraordinary.
Ghostly begins - and continues all the way with - a long, patient, slow build. Soft organ notes come out of the ether, and are held for longer than you could expect. Then there are drums, sounding from somewhere undefinable; somewhere far away, from across a room and round a corner. They tap out an almost military beat, but softened and reverberating.
This is one of those pieces of music which will give something a little different to every listener. For me, it conjured up a cinematic montage of long journeys, scudding clouds, and the cold beauty of a winter coast.
The vocals are delivered gently, not far beyond a softly spoken words. About half way through, we hear other elements stepping in. Then, perhaps as we feel we've got the measure of the piece, there's a subtle build in drums, some proggy electric guitar, and a distant voice soars in what almost sounds like lamentation - or it pure joy? Sometimes there's a fine line.
Mark and Chris formed Quiet, The Art in August 2019 and have so far released only a handful of pieces of music (you must check out 'And The Rains Came', with its intriguing samples and noodling guitars). But even based on this brief track record, I can tell they're definitely ones to watch.
Listen to the new track (which was released on 5 November) below, and I strongly encourage you to support the duo via their Bandcamp page.