C Duncan

The Midnight Sun

The Midnight Sun is a heavily stylized return that does not fall for crude, archaic sounds to create its spectral atmosphere, but rather relies on timeless rules of composition; much like its predecessor, it is sure to be met with acclaim.

Elegant and focused, the album was written, recorded and produced in the same bedroom as his first LP - with the same supersonic attention to detail. It's only his ambitions that have changed.

Like its predecessor, every single element on The Midnight Sun appears to have been carefully and painstakingly thought out ... C Duncan has worked his magic once again – just sit back and soak it all in.

There is also an innocence to these songs, a spirituality that, in a year of bold musical statements and political upheaval, provides a soothing tonic; an escapist episode of spectacular beauty.

Despite its curiously downbeat nature, it’s thoughtful and packed with intricacies waiting to be revealed. You’ll never want to leave once it sucks you into its gravitational orbit.

The Midnight Sun is more of an atmospheric experience, than an emotive one. That’s less of a problem than it would seem, because the atmosphere that C Duncan has crafted is mesmerising.

His spectral voice moves within billowing clouds of elliptical melody, many of which are painted using much brighter colors than their melancholic librettos would suggest, resulting in something that's very much like the anachronistic cult anthology television show that helped to inspire them.

The Midnight Sun is another accomplished effort coming from an artist whose expansive imagination belies his self-recorded productions.

That's not to say there's anything slapdash about these 11 cuts—far from it—but there's an unavoidable sense that a little time may have helped to hone these tracks into something rather special.