richard youngs & raul refree: all hands around the moment

For their first meeting, Richard Youngs (Glasgow) and Raül Refree (Barcelona) have created a suite of stately, circular longform songs that manage to connect Tim Buckley's Happy Sad to Federico García Lorca to plainsong liturgy. The largely acoustic and quietly urgent All Hands Around The Moment finds Youngs in an impassioned and emotional space he's rarely inhabited since Sapphie, elevated by lush chamber folk/jazz compositions that incorporate piano, guitar and more, performed by both Youngs and Refree. The four pieces that build the whole of All Hands Around The Moment harness transcendence in repetition, and feature gorgeous progressive minimalism in full spectrum. Dark existential themes flow into mystic uplifting expressions of humanity, without missing a beat. In its timelessness and prescience, the realities present in All Hands Around The Moment make for a powerfully engrossing listen from top to bottom.