15 December 2010 - 0 Comments

Somewhere, someplace, the world is burning slowly down. Alps of ice retreating slowly into the ground, the sky’s shield slowly failing us. All to waste as if under a spell. And for those planning on pulling up a chair to watch it all burn, Portraits is the perfect soundtrack.

Timothy Armstrong grew up surrounded by pictures of buildings. With a prominent architect and artist for a father, the younger Armstrong developed a penchant for constructing tall and strange musical towers; their strange exteriors cloaking a strong structure within.

In 2007, Armstrong released his first solo album We Can All Breathe A Little Easier Now on his own indie imprint Twig Records. Garnering praise for his “Widescreen vision”, Armstrong continued his prolific musical sketches, created and produced single-handedly in home studios across Wellington.

He found a vehicle for these in The Novelist, a band that has quickly garnered a reputation for being one of the most technically brilliant and electric alternative outfits in the scene; creating electrifying renderings of Armstrong’s compositions across the country. With The Novelist, Armstrong released Votive E.P in August 2010.

Timothy Armstrong stands aside from the frenetic energy of his main band The Novelist to produce a second solo album. A beautiful kind of disquiet. “Hear the thunder in the desert” Armstrong intones in half-whispered urgency on ‘Tar & Feather’ – the stillness here being the calm of the storm. Labyrinthine melodies vine their way through the sparse instrumentation of cello, glockenspiel and toy piano to bring Armstrong’s proficiency to the fore – a Bachelor in Musical Composition with Honours from Victoria University well-spent; minor chords descending into fragmented time signatures with the unsettling beauty of an apocalypse siren.

The album is not stripped back, it’s laid bare. Some kind of enchanting scorched earth. On songs like ‘Forgery’, the simple entwine of Armstrong’s voice with that of local songstress Sarah Colman provides a kind of wounded sincerity that suggests more than just a fine tune. There’s something classical in there; something lost, something found.

Portraits is available now from www.timothyarmstrong.com with a release tour scheduled for Late January 2011. 

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