[rating=7.00]
March to May is a Seattle-based folk/rock duo whose music is a gentle blend of acoustic instruments accompanying two beautiful voices that manage to become gorgeous together. With the recently-released Through the Night, they have a created an album that is a perfect encapsulation of the Pacific Northwest at its most pensive, haunting, and sublime. It is an album that would be perfect heard in a rustic coffee shop on a wet winter night, the windows steamed, candles burning, and again, a warm beverage in hand. It is, in short, comfort music from a region where such can be enjoyed more of the year than not.
The instrumentation on Through the Night is beautiful, melodic, and well-produced, with trumpet, cello, violin and harp occasionally adding to the more traditional guitar, piano, bass and percussion. None of these, however, steals the spotlight; to the contrary, the album rests clearly on the vocals of Elizabeth Wesche and Darren Guyaz.
They provide alternate leads but are at their best when harmonizing, such as the compelling yet anguished-seeming chorus “take me through the night, I’ll find my way” on “The Navigator.” However, both have their moments to shine; Wesche often takes lead or solo parts, and in those times her voice shines, as her soaring, plaintive queries on “If I Told You I Could Stay.” In many Guyaz feels strongest as a supporting, restrained voice, seeming to hold back and yet effortlessly coast such as over the melodic, echoey drums on “Through the Night” or over Wesche’s voice on “White Rose.”
In short, this is an excellent album to put into your rotation; while it may go well with a summer spritzer under a blazing sun, it’s a wonderful accompaniment to the darker, wetter months that simply demand spending time inside with good people – or alone.
