Steve Von Till – A Deep Voiceless Wilderness / Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems: Album Reviews

By Dominic Walsh on 4th June 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

Steve Von Till has blazed a trail in music for over two decades. He has turned his hand to many styles. His latest solo offerings are the neo-classical A Deep Voiceless Wilderness and a collection of poetry readings in Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems.

Release date: 30th April 2021

Label: Neurot Recordings

Format: CD / Vinyl / Digital

A Deep Voiceless Wilderness

A Deep Voiceless Wilderness is an album steeped in beauty. The vast perspective of the cover shows the flurry of colour that you will find amongst the wondrous soundscapes on this record.

Called From The Wind is the first composition on the album. It opens with tender, lamenting strings atop a slow, ominous bass tone. The drama builds throughout the piece with sparse pianos and sound effects that brew unease. We’ll Always Have The Sea continues the naturalistic theme of the album with more beauty. Again, there is a melancholy but ultimately the result is wholeheartedly uplifting. The melody amongst the main part of the composition is brass led, and the pulsing synths have a Vangelis/Blade Runner feel to them.

Chiming synths open up The Emptiness Swallows Us All; and as the title suggests, this composition feels darker. The earthy tones are that little bit deeper and darker, and the sadness from the orchestration goes that little bit further in tugging at your emotions. Flayed synth sounds again resonate as the song builds; Steve Von Till has put this album together masterfully. A darkness continues to swarm through Shelter In Surrender. Again, the synths are discordant and unnerving.

Nightshade High Country returns to a more dreamlike state; a composition that you can truly disappear into your own world with. Look at the cover, pick a location, shut your eyes, and drift. A warmth resonates in amongst the brilliantly layered music. The Spiraling Away keeps the warmth and builds to a magnificent crescendo with heavier synths that throb and dominate the soundscape.

A Deep Voiceless Wilderness sits comfortably amongst releases from artists like Brian Eno, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Nils Frahm and Max Richter. The aching beauty and disparate loneliness that can be conjured in music is sublimely realised by Steve Von Till in this ambient work.

Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems

In conjunction with A Deep Voiceless Wilderness, Steve Von Till has put together a spoken word album of poetry.

Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems is a collection of 23 poems and it is put together with Von Till reading the pieces with stark accompaniment. Sectioned into four smaller parts, I-V relies on Steve Von Till’s gravelly tone in delivering the words. VI-XII adds a hefty slice of reverb on his voice to amp up the spectacle.

XIII-XVIII keeps the reverb but the use of deft, slight, swirling synths are allowed in to further increase the tension in the words. According to Steve Von Till, “The background sounds used on some of the tracks were pieces related to No Wilderness Deep Enough that were either not used or repurposed to interweave further connections between my artistic output at this time of my life.”

XIX-XXIII opens with the sound of music being the prominent driver before the words take over. The album last for 18 minutes but in that short time, Von Till’s delivery, and his words, are devastating and will enrapture. He is clearly an artist striving to break new ground for himself and his own artistic fulfillment.