Gentle Stranger: Inner Winter

Since the COVID pandemic, folk music has enjoyed a resurgence more than any other genre out there. With all its variations (some radical, some not), many have found folk as a gateway of sorts, and even the doomier side of it has broken through the fourth wall, largely thanks to the talisman that is Lankum.

False Lankum continues to be the siren call to a generation that has seen life’s mundane responsibilities of family and employment overshadow any time new music once commanded, and alongside those who have still managed to keep their finger on the pulse over the last 10 or 15 years, whether the hype is worth it or not is neither here nor there: people who weren’t talking about new music six months ago are back at the table seemingly reinvigorated by it. This can only be a positive thing in a climate that has a staunch contempt for the arts.

Whether you’re aboard the Lankum train or not, for those seeking a timely alternative (or indeed, something in a similar vein), then look no further than Gentle Stranger’s Inner Winter. With a sunken gloom, Inner Winter is the soundtrack to combat the foul weather that the U.K. has currently been engulfed in.

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The duo, consisting of Alex McKenzie (caroline) and Tom Hardwick-Allan (Shovel Dance Collective), have spent the last three years dispensing the kind of abstract absurdity normally reserved for the likes of a.P.A.t.T. and the Unstoppable Sweeties Shows. That’s why Inner Winter is one of the great surprises in the new music sphere over the past 12 months.

From a cynical point of view, young bands who take such leftfield turns often arouse suspicion. Flitting between sound worlds that are in vogue at the time, it obliterates any notion of authenticity you once had for said band. Not Gentle Stranger, though. So far removed from anything they’ve done, this is a one-of-a-kind record that–as its title suggests–is tailor-made for the elements.

With a raft of guests, including Martha Skye Murphy, Kiran Leonard, Lauren Auder and Merlin Nova, Gentle Stranger begin with (Engine in the Snow). An iron-grey drone that is the first of three interludes (the others (Searching in the Snow) and (Angel in the Snow)), it is these forlorn passages that form the bedrock on which Inner Winter is built.

Following the creaking drones of (Engine in the Snow) comes Two to Carry. A grainy, piano-led number that is, indeed, inner winter. With abstract imagery of the past that is captured in the present (“Past pictures of the people we have been / Walking backwards into the evening sun“), Two to Carry’s melancholic pulse overshadows homespun warmth.

Meanwhile, Kestrel (a re-work from the duo’s 2020 release, Love And Unlearn) recounts a story of a bird that Hardwick-Allan couldn’t save (“Under a blanket of snow / I want to be left alone”), and while this latest version sees McKenzie infusing some of caroline’s skinny electro aesthetic into the mix, this composition excavates a new depth of emotion.

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It feeds into the achingly beautiful title track. The most fragile song Gentle Stranger have written and, indeed, are likely to ever write. “If you love what you’ve lost more than you love what you’ve still got / No wonder the world seems to spin the wrong way round”, sings Hardwick-Allan – the kind of passage that simply bores through bone, almost rendered as too painful to revisit.

Closing with Love Me Like That, a ritualistic folk drone that is like summoning spirits through the log burner’s flames, it sees Gentle Stranger continue their quest to break through the fragile emotional state that this time of year often brings. And in essence, it’s the simple, raw reality of Gentle Stranger’s songs which makes Inner Winter the beautiful record that it is.

On the title track, Hardwick-Allan sings, “I don’t want to be followed or found anymore.” Again, it’s a feeling closely aligned to the miserable months of December through to March. Yes, Inner Winter may be a seasonal record, but with all its woodsy finesse and subtle inflections of locality, it may prove an equally vital companion as things eventually thaw out.

Inner Winter is out now via PRAH Recordings/Double Dare. Purchase from Bandcamp.