#ALL WE KNOW FULL#

The haunted instrumental Guidance Is Internal harks back to the atmospheres of Howling Songs (2008) with its guitar parts full of scansions and muted threats. A funereal tribute to endless twilights and the dawns we all dream of seeing. The opening song Farewell To All We Know seems torn between the fear of what tomorrow may bring, inevitability and hope for the future in a permanent and progressive dramatic tension expressed by his Spanish guitar, the impressionist style piano and MattвЂ™s voice teetering on the edge of whispers. However this work is never frail nor really turned in on himself and thus becomes like a vital tune that vibrates and unfolds. By making his music stark and purifying and redefining the subject matter, Matt ElliottвЂ™s work became so much more delicate. Everything is the same but also is transfigured. There is a clear form of alchemy in all of this and still we find Matt ElliottвЂ™s usual atmospheres and scenery, the same Eastern European folk music, long songs that take time to settle over time. Farewell To All We Know is an instant classic based on the sensitive piano and superb arrangements of David Chalmin, the sensitive cello of Gaspar Claus, the subtle bass of Jeff Hallam (who has also played with Dominique A and John Parish).

Matt ElliottвЂ™s other records all seemed like empathic links between each other. StГ©phane GrГ©goire is the head of the Ici DвЂ™Ailleurs label which has accompanied Matt Elliott since 2005 and perhaps he describes this album the best: В«This new record by Matt is without a doubt his best album to date, a record that takes him into another dimension where he fully asserts himself as a songwriter and singer of the calibre of artists like Bill Callahan, Leonard Cohen or Johnny Cash.В» Their partnership continued on Only Myocardial Infection Can Break Your Heart (2013) and The Calm Before (2016). On this record Matt began working with the producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin (La Terre Invisible) who has kept on collaborating with the Bristol-born singer since then. The Broken Man (2012) was full of tears and long laments sometimes carried by Katia LabГЁqueвЂ™s piano on a record which painted new shades of grey. With the Songs trilogy, he put aside the electronic side of his work to continue working with a minimalist, stark and lucid style of writing.

The Mess We Made (2003) was Matt ElliottвЂ™s first solo album and portrayed a universe in a kind of flight towards Balkan horizons made up of visceral despair. The elegant details and perspectives of Little Lost Soul (2000) already hinted at the upcoming masterpiece from the English singer-songwriter. the calm before what? Before the storm for sure but maybe also before the great record, the immediate classic we felt might be coming for a long time in the dual discography of the Bristol-born artist working under his own name and his electronic alias Third Eye Foundation. In 2016, Matt Elliott brought out his seventh solo album The Calm Before whose obscure title is neither exactly threatening nor comforting. Despite, or rather thanks to his cynical despair, Matt ElliottвЂ™s music never holds up a moralizing mirror to us - on the contrary, it creates a compassionate dialogue with listeners like the rhythm of two steps that synchronize to become as one. There might be little difference between them, a certain В«je ne sais quoiВ», an В«almost nothing but still somethingВ» which makes the difference between almost pointless and vital records. There are records with empathy, records which are your friends and then thereвЂ™s the others. To be released on Ici d'ailleurs on March 27th

All we know