Karl Blau: AM

A concept record based upon the poems of writer A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh), Karl Blau’s AM could be the soundtrack to a sepia-tone sweep of sublime countryside. Steeped in the sounds of the wild, these ten tracks, partly inspired by a collaboration with the Microphones’ Phil Elverum, map a mysterious landscape that oscillates between serenity and anxiety. From the rough atmospherics and murmuring hand-drums of “Morning Prayer” to the triumphant, understated “Lake King’s Daughter”, AM reveals a highly developed sense of composition that pits fragile melodies against harsh guitars and sputtering percussion with remarkable subtlety. Elverum occasionally contributes a haunted tenor voice and shares songwriting credit on the droning “Noah Richards Son”, but it’s Blau’s weary croon, shoegaze-y guitar and intriguing songwriting that makes his musical Hundred Acre Wood so strangely inviting.