"Outside" - Sortie le 21 octobre

After spending the last year on a pair of EPs that explored the patterns and emotions that can be drawn from layered repetition, Montreal-based producer Mike Silver, aka CFCF, is releasing Outside, his first full LP since 2009's beat driven Continent. Though some of the hypnotic elements that populated those EPs and, to an extent, Continent are still present, Outside feels more like a culmination of the ideas Silver was exploring.
Many of the tracks were written while he was travelling on buses and trains, usually between Montreal and New York or Toronto, and the music reflects the yearning for stability that comes from constant movement, as well as the fascination with the inherent beauty of new environments. First single "Jump Out Of The Train" is made from a bed of scribbled strings and textured stabs of dense guitar, with Silver's voice floating just about it. There's a warmth to the track, and the rest of the songs on Outside as well, but it's coupled with a fear of the unknown, the wildness of nature, the claustrophobia of cities—an obsession with the way our emotions play off the environments we inhabit.
Over the course of the album, Silver experiments with the idea of beauty, whether it's the beauty of the natural world—lush forests, daunting mountain ranges—or the man-made shadows and angles of architecture; a parking lot's endless sprawl. Though he's looking outward, Outside is still a personal album, drawing on loneliness and the distinct smallness that comes from being part of the world, while still acknowledging the beauty inherent in existing in it.
In the hands of a less defined artist, there'd likely be a disconnect between the external and internal elements of emotion, but Silver excels at making songs that situate him in particular environments, exploring how they effect his emotional state through the contrast of natural and synthetic elements. In some cases, artificial choirs intermingle with live drums and, unexpectedly, electric guitar, which provides the thrust of some tracks ("Find," "Beyond Light") and works to subtly thicken others, like Silver's excellent cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "Strange Form of Life," which he's reworked into a lush moment of visceral, heartbreaking sadness.
There's not a huge amount of sonic similarity between Continent and Outside, but the latter once again showcases Silver's diverse songwriting abilities. Album closer "Walking In The Dust" is all syrup-slow minimalism, his voice appearing in bursts between spacey percussion. "Feeling, Holding" is almost tropical, a dubby track that examines the concept of opening your world up to another person in the hopes that they'll do the same. It's a bright, euphoric moment.

All too often, loneliness is written about as a purely internal feeling. Something to be felt, but not ever seen. With Outside, Silver's managed to create something that grapples with how loneliness radiates outward and reflects the environments he finds himself in, even if he's only in them briefly. The album is inexorably connected to nature, to the extent that it doesn’t only capture one man’s viewpoint, but a deeply universal take on the world we all inhabit.