40 Watt Sun seeks the bare essence of the music, without pathos but with a lot of feeling

In the pop halls you are often overwhelmed with visual violence, with light shows and theatre. But fortunately against all that violence there is a lot of stillness and simplicity, music that tries to search for the bare essence.

British singer-songwriter Patrick Walker was the leader of the influential doom band Warning in the 1990s and 2000s. When it defunct, Walker turned to a stripped-down, often acoustic and deeply personal version of that band and basically the entire genre of slow and gloomy rock. As a 40 Watt Sun he released pearls of albums, with songs that dragged on around again monotonous guitar chords and the powerful and slightly peculiar voice of Walker.

Live in TivoliVredenburg’s Cloud Nine hall in Utrecht, Walker peels off his songs even further: he is alone on stage, with a guitar and a single spot on his head. But his guitar work and especially his voice, which is not artificial but earthly beautiful and crystal clear, reach deep into the emotional life. The slow guitar beat of the beautiful love song Until gives the text a rhythm like a breath: ‘There is silence in the way that you enclose me, there is lighting in the gaze in which you hold me.’

Walker sings without pathos, yet with an emotional tremor as he shoots up and adds power to his words. In Reveal for example, the first track and highlight of his newly released album Perfect Light, you hear centuries of British folk and guitar splendor and again enchanting lines of poetry that are gloomy but also give life shine: ‘Whenever the night is tightening, wherever you are, the light will reach.’ Anyone who is not yet familiar with 40 Watt Sun should try one of Walker’s albums soon.