ALBUM REVIEW: Somnambulistic – Plum Green

Melbourne-based PLUM GREEN has a talent for creating folk music that speaks to a very spiritual place without directly relying on a specific religious or geographical inspiration. It’s often the images of a more personal experience that have drawn attention. With her third album Somnambulistic, the literal meaning of the title – sleepwalking – is the main theme of the record. However, it’s not as you might think. The sleep walking is through a dream scape of PLUM GREEN’s making.

As you’d expect, opening track Raspberry Vine is suitably mysterious and elegant. There’s a sombre edge to the wistful, slow strings and the menacing pull of the cello. It’s a dark and unusual take on the folk style, and is a clear shift from more guitar driven sounds to more open, simplistic acoustics.

Eyes Shut is just as eerie, a story of getting though the night. A tale of the quiet horrors of the world and of what our minds and bodies do to us; the things that weigh you down. It’s sparse and almost spoken word it’s so softly expressed, but the comfortable way the lyrics are delivered makes this feel inviting and warm in spite of the subject matter.

White Kitten is more of the same – hauntingly wistful. Its leanings towards the slightly off kilter make this feel dangerous and otherworldly, while Grave Snuggler is the first place that feels truly comforting, a single guitar and a beautiful harmony of choral vocals edging you towards slumber. People Of The Snow is a further step into the dream space, that same chorus effect dipping in and out to create a magical sensation as you surrender yourself to the tranquil soundscape of shimmering ambience.

The most remorseful feeling track has to be Walk Against The Wind, which carries a sense of longing to stay still, both physically and in an emotional sense, but that it’s time to move away from that part of your life into a new season of self and a new place. There are some gorgeous, fresh vocals that are really worth mentioning. They’re serene but don’t feel in any way processed; there’s a flawed, natural feel in them that just feels right. In the same vein, Moon Of Honey has a harsher echo that feels like a shallower space has been entered, with PLUM GREEN’s beautiful, raw vocals reverberating closely around you.

Here We Go feels like we’re being ushered to the end of our journey through Somnambulistic, the gentle repetition of the guitars warm and familiar as the ethereal vocals hum and sigh their way through a myriad of distant string sections. There’s no sense of dread or remorse, there’s just the fact that we’re coming towards a new chapter. It’s a sense of contentment that would be nice for us to experience as we navigate to new places in our lives, and beyond.

Final track Belleza Nocturna, which roughly translates from Spanish to beautiful night, feels like a ritual song in praise of the things that linger in the dark, in the pale moon light, for the eerier sense of the mystic, calm danger of the night time. There are some deeper, male vocals that tap in to the haunting calls of Green herself, evoking the imagination that there are other things in the peaceful night that we can’t see but can feel. One might be tempted to make the comparison to Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth with its sinister, beautiful tone and imagery of the world of fairy.

This is a great effort from PLUM GREEN to create a sound space of dark beauty. Somnambulistic has such a wealth of quiet, powerful moments that really feel like you’re being steered through a dream of a strange and gorgeous place by a guide who has a tender care for the smaller places, both inner and outer body.

Rating: 7/10

Somnambulistic is set for release on September 17th via Nefarious Industries.

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