Title

Label/Cat No.

Year

Length

Blackfield

Helicon HL8199

2004

36.51

Blackfield (International Edition)

Snapper SMACD880

2004

52.00 +

BLACKFIELD

Track listing: Open Mind (3:49), Blackfield (4:06), Glow (4:00), Scars (3:57), Lullaby (3:29), Pain (3:47), Summer (4:12), Cloudy Now (3:34), The Hole In Me (2:47), Hello (3:09)

Blackfield is the collaboration between Israeli singer songwriter Aviv Geffen and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. A collection of short songs recorded over 2001 to 2003 this is an album very much in the vein of recent P.T. albums such as 'Lightbulb Sun' and ' In Absentia'. Six of the songs are written by Geffen and Wilson together with the remaining four split two each.  Wilson takes the lead vocals on eight of the tracks whilst instrumentation is presumably shared and a string quartet features on four of the songs.  Drumming duties are shared by Gavin Harrison, Chris Maitland and Jeremy Haplan.

More immediate than Wilson's other side project No Man, Blackfield is a batch of dark but achingly beautiful songs with haunting melodies that linger in the mind long after playing.  Any instrumental interludes are kept brief and to the point with the main focus being on the songs' vocal melodies. Whilst mostly on the lighter side there are still a few moments when electric guitars rev up and underline some of the latent despair and frustration felt in the lyrics.  'Hello' with it's smooth and dreamy atmosphere is already a hit single in Israel apparently and 'Summer' would make another good candidate.   Meanwhile the disturbing 'Cloudy Now'  and 'Glow' have irresistable melodies and plenty of that Wilson plaintive acoustic guitar and vocal magic.

It's hard to judge to effect of Aviv Geffin's input to this album as I am not familiar with any of his other works, but it would seem to me that Steven Wilson is the dominant partner here with his songwriting and vocal style shining through brightly. This album will be lapped up by fans of Wilson's other output and despite it's frustratingly short duration of a mere 37 minutes this is an album you won't want to be without.

Steve  13/03/04

BLACKFIELD (International Edition)

Additional tracks: Perfect World (3:53), Where Is My Love ? (3:01), Cloudy Now (live) (3:46), Blackfield (video) (4:06)

(For review of main tracks please see previous article first - ed.)

Just a few words about this 'international' release of the Blackfield album. Snapper have now issued this album in a digi pack format complete with bonus disc containing two new tracks, a live one and a video of the 'Blackfield' song. It seems that everything involving Steven Wilson gets re released six months later with extra tracks thus forcing fans to buy the album twice to get all the songs.  This one is particularly annoying since the original release was so short and in fact all the music and video track could fit onto one disc anyway. Well, there might be a justifiable reason for this but who knows ?

Anyway back to the music, the two previously unreleased tracks are simply excellent and fit in perfectly with the mood of the songs on the main album. 'Perfect World' is a beautiful acoustic number, dreamy melancholic pop but with that Wilson 'x' factor that simply shines.  Likewise 'Perfect World' written by Aviv Geffen is another jewel in the Blackfield songbook that you won't want to miss.  The live version of 'Cloudy Now' offers a slight variation compared to the original version and the video of the 'Blackfield' title track is a hypnotising mix of music and stunning visuals.

My only further comment regarding the music of Blackfield is that it sounds virtually identical to Porcupine Tree. Of course there's no long ambient instrumental workouts here or hints of death metal either but the style of the short songs of both bands are so similar as to make no difference. This is obviously not a complaint because I love both but I wonder if Wilson and Geffen will attempt a more collaborative and original direction on their next outing.  So to sum up if you didn't already buy the Israeli version of this album then what are you waiting for? If you did, then you may want to sell it and buy this one.

Steve 26th September 2004