Once the kids have gone to bed, the US couple plays exotica ballads from an endangered pop paradise.
TO BE A CLOUD – is that a dreamy, hippie-esque mind game in the title? Or should it be the cloud in digital operations, which can theoretically collect everything from everyone? One can expect fundamental explorations of this kind from the saxophones, for now they clarify: The title was inspired by a book by the Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh (“No Death, No Fear”), which uses clouds as a metaphor for the transience of the things used.
TO BE A CLOUD is about love and romantic feelings, but also about the fear of loss. The monk’s wise words provide a sort of basic melody for the third record, which Erenkov performs alongside his wife Alison Alderdice, and on which he again approaches us in levitation.
The music of the saxophones has always had something cloudy and weightless
The music of the saxophones has always had something cloudy and weightless, and that’s how they fly away here; Erenkov’s voice drapes over prancing string winds, traveling straight to the 1950s and learning about American ballad art. In the background: Alison Alderdice’s tiki-tiki beats, which could have come from a forgotten exotica collection.
However, the album was recorded at Here & Now at Phil Elverum’s (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington, and the songs were written at the couple’s home after their children had gone to bed. It has gotten dark, and Erenkov and Alderdice open the door to a shimmering golden music paradise that is only rarely visited, xylophones and flutes greet, there is always a somewhat threatened calm that emanates from these songs, which the saxophones so wonderfully through the Sing and play through times.