The Ghost And The Machine was founded by Andreas Lechner in Austria in 2012 and the new album, Sorrows, was released in November. There are twelve tracks, slightly dark, slightly eerie, more than a little fascinating.
It’s a couple of decades since I’ve been downstairs in a darkened European cellar bar / club so I’m sure they’ve changed … but that feels like the kind of place I’d bump into The Ghost And The Machine.
The album opens with ‘Strange Days’, mysterious sounding, fuzzy sounding, slow tempo, the lyrics sung – but in a spoken singing style (think elements of Waits or Cohen), the title telling you the mood. The album moves on to ‘Iron Sun’, still moody, still fuzzy but more up tempo, more indie with a lively lead guitar. ‘Fire Walker’ follows, even more up tempo, 90’s rock beat, still fuzzy, moody and great fun to listen to.
Lechner talks about the new album as filling an artistic void in his life, developing his own guitar tunings so that he could write in a more intuitive way; he uses the word ‘primal’ to describe what drives him, “Music is a primal need of humanity … When I make music, I try to connect with this primal need and channel it into my compositions, hoping to pass on this experience to others.”
It’s not what the UK scene would know as folk music, but it’s an enjoyable album, moving between the tempos. There is an intensity to both the sound and the lyrics as Lechner – unsurprisingly much sought after (I gather) as both a live and a studio musician – brings his vision to life.
The other two tracks I would highlight as perhaps the best introduction for a folk audience are ‘Sorrows’, the title track, and ‘Ghost Romance’, both of them slower, moody and delicately played and arranged.
Mike Wistow
Artist’s website: https://www.the-ghost-and-the-machine.com
‘Strange Days’ – official video:
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