Taken from “Moonchy & Tobias III”, out October 30th 2020 via Tiny Room Records.
“Moonchy & Tobias III” is the third collaborative album of vocalist Pat Moonchy (Sothiac) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Todd Tobias (GBV, Robert Pollard). It has become an album shrouded in nighttime darkness, with eerie soundscapes and lyrics in Latin.
On their new album Moonchy & Tobias delve deeper into the shadowy recesses of their intoxicating sound, creating an immersive soundtrack to our most uncanny nightmares. Moonchy’s primal vocals, mostly sung in Latin, thread through Tobias’s nocturnal atmospheres like smoke. As Moonchy explains, “When I sing in Latin it feels like discovering the details of ancient lives lost in time.” There’s a definite sense that something latent and primordial is being summoned – yet the full extent of its power is cloaked in mystery.
In an unintentional parallel, the album that III most resembles is Portishead’s majestic Third, which creates and inhabits its own haunted space. Where Moonchy & Tobias differ is in employing a more rustic approach to songcraft, while still evoking an exquisite sense of atmosphere. There’s an undeniable melancholy across these 12 tracks, but it never feels cloying, instead leavened by a poised theatricality and sense of play. The midnight hour has a new transportive soundtrack.
