MoonJune 2025
Out in the open, Albionian rambler seizes the day and dares it to stay for aural wonders to not evaporate.
Elemental
Line up Mark Wingfield’s albums, issued on MoonJune records, chronologically, and you’ll see an interesting tendency: the artwork of the English guitarist’s records shows a gradual lightening, and the music under these photographs reflects this change most perfectly. “Elemental” may signal a fresh shift in the composer’s paradigm, however, not only because the Callanish Stones pictured on the platter’s cover finally take him out of customary urban landscapes, but also thanks to the monumental momentum they capture. Cautiously carved out of the ether, rather than fully improvised, yet delivered on the fly, in most cases nigh spontaneously, the pieces on display here reveal vistas "Tales From The Dreaming City" couldn’t envisage. With four tracks laid down live in the studio sans overdubs, two streamed in real time, and another four carefully crafted, the sensation of serenity and serendipity is bound to engulf the listener.
Even somewhat mechanical grooves can’t detract from the marvels scattered across the record, and those rhythms tend to be quite imaginative on such tracks as “Hope Valley” which streams nuanced excitement when lingering notes and brief riffs drip from Wingfield’s strings or the uplifting “Zag Zig” which evokes “Auld Lang Syne” in all its hymnal glory. Still, nothing percussive is required to shape the understated, finely layered magnificence of “Seven Bridges” – whose run of 7:49 should tempt the audience to divide the epic into equal parts, as per title, and this task will prove successful, although banishing math from beauty would seem wiser – where delays and echo conspire to create an astonishingly fresh, awe-inspiring, dawn-like perspective. And then there are chamber miracles of “We Live Here” where acoustic caress and electric airiness get married to produce sonic intimacy of the highest order, while “Falcons Ridge” and “Tamin Negara” tie primal exotica to exquisite dance, and “Suntar” freezes resonance to a glacial effect to bare an experimental vibe behind the radiance.
“A Sign In The Weather” might be the sole number here born on the spot, guitar painting bold strokes over glimmering synthetic background, but the emotional flourishes of “Silver Wind” emerge from a similar place, and “Tantallon” reaches first for vigorous effervescence and then for tranquility to wind down this plein-air outing in style. A field-trip like no other, “Elemental” is simply staggering.
*****
