Nine Suns, One Morning’ is the third album from The Silence since their formation in Tokyo in July of 2014. The Silence transpose ecstatic moments from the rock and roll dreamscape into all-new, living music. ‘Nine Suns, One Morning’ is one of the most explosive, far-ranging albums you could hope to hear in 2016. The Silence employ a great variety of instruments with tremendous discipline, always in service of the songs, which share a goal of finding new lines of expression, no matter where the starting point. While ‘Nine Suns, One Morning’ is a fully-developed album of modern rock and roll that moves fluidly between all styles of music, many listeners are still unaware of The Silence, who have yet to tour outside of Japan but are anxious to do so. Masaki Batoh is the leader of the group, which he formed after dissolving the legendary Ghost in 2014. Forming the sound of The Silence, Batoh draws upon the indigenous and the mysterious aspects of the spiritual world, as exemplified by Western rock, blues and British traditional music. He is supported in his endeavour by keyboardist and Bulgarian Tambula player (and original Ghost member) Kazuo Ogino, jazz saxophonist Ryuichi Yoshida, bassist Jan Stigter and drummer Futoshi Okano (Subvert Blaze, Hijokaidan). These musicians bring together a combined understanding of different values of music, literature, film, culture, psychology, philosophy and the spirit world that informs and expands everything they play together as they work to transcend the illusions of music that have existed until now. Previous album ‘Hark The Silence’ emphasized the solvent quality of open air and the liquidity of free-flowing improvisation from which songs might eventually appear. ‘Nine Suns, One Morning’ departs from the brooding gothic skies under which ‘Hark the Silence’s slow-boiling jams unfolded, revisiting the song-based fixation that marked The Silence’s debut album. The difference this time is that the deep space accessed on ‘Hark The Silence’ strikes into the new songs, infusing them with wider reach and greater cosmic power than before. The song orientation of ‘Nine Suns, One Morning’ is further expressed by the inclusion of two cover versions. ‘Louie Louie’, the most elemental of rock songs, is shaken violently in best Silence fashion, while ‘No Expectations’ is given a gossamer gospel treatment. From honking sax to jazz time signatures to squalling psychedelic guitars, The Silence celebrate the transformative fusions of rock and roll music with everything that they do.
