Ghostwriter – ‘I Stand Amazed’ (from ‘Tremulant’ LP)

To a previous version of myself the very idea of an album made up mostly of interpretations of hymns would have set off my warning klaxons. The inclusion of a version of ‘Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down’ (which I first heard via Uncle Tupelo) might have intrigued me, but I doubt that former self would have investigated further. More fool them, however, for ‘Tremulant’ is a tremendous thirty four minutes of 21st Century reverence with a timeless relevance. A collaboration between Mark Brend, Suzy Mangion, Andrew Rumsey and Michael Weston King, the recordings here were made largely in isolation, inputs pieced together in personal meditation, a kind of communal spirituality of energies slipping across the networks. It’s perhaps best experienced in the two long pieces (‘I Stand Amazed’ and ‘The Anchor’), both of which are expansive interpretations that resonate with the spirit of 15th Century chapels and corrugated iron tabernacles.