You won’t ever get unwelcome noise from a Peter Broderick record. He prefers to deal in organic beauty stemming from modern classical and warmed acoustic balladry. Here the multi-instrumentalist often lets the all-important beauty take precedence over the songs. He pushes to the fore a sense of flow, circling sounds and momentum – the mainstay being the acoustic guitars, pianos and, of course, his loyal violin. He seems caught somewhere between his soundtrack/session work and his own humble writings.

Listening to back to Home, it was all about the songs, but on the clever/rubbish titled http://www.itstartshere.com (Broderick wanted to ensure we knew the way to his website where the lyrics and artwork can be found) most of the emotion is brought about by the effectively layered atmosphere rather than well-written songs. It’s got a deeply earthy feel – like creaking timber in the sunset hour, the instruments grow from the ground. It’s like a rootsier version of Sigur Rós at times. I Am Piano is a string-laden soundtrack to a new dawn – Broderick’s voice enters at the end but has little to add to the scenic journey we’ve been privy to.

There is plenty here to admire, the gorgeous harmonised, guitar-picked A Tribute To Our Letter Writing Days. The subtle orchestration warms the ground for the song to walk upon. With Notes on Fire bounds along with hope and speed, growing with vocal “la’s” and a crowd of gorgeous instrumentation. We get a subtle amount of experimentation too, electronics randomly bubble under the surface, the title tune being an awkward digital narrative, which spells out the URL for the chorus.

Even the best musicians can’t make something out of nothing – Broderick has given it a good go here, but ultimately the weak material means it falls short of what we might have hoped for.

-Dave Taylor-