Having gained a reputation as one of the most vibrant and exciting live bands on the scene, Din Of Celestial Birds have a growing and faithful following.

A BRILLIANT DIN

Don’t let the term ‘concept album’ make you squirm even though this is what Take Off And Landings is. It is one of an extremely high quality. A concept album all about the process of changes through life and how each stage in your life presents different challenges. “Each song is it’s own adventure,” claims guitarist / songwriter Andie Gill. He continues, “We want listeners to feel these adventures; to visualise huge mountains and vast oceans.”

The vibrant opener, Takeoffs And Landings begins with a monumental eruption to our journey with soaring guitars and crashing percussion as though heralding that there are exhilarating times ahead. Marmoris initially wants to beat you into submission. The ringing guitars briefly ebb with dreamy floating synths. However, it does return to a glorious crescendo. The dynamism and dramatic sounds are relentless with only the briefest of respites and its not until the tuneful You Are My Temple do we get some lightness and calm. But even with these gentler waves the tension is growing until the pounding percussion leads to exhilarating guitar work.

MIGRATORY PATTERNS

There is a rather exotic opening to Migratory Patterns to show that Din Of Celestial Birds are not all thunder and brashness. It as if they want to surround you with music rather than confront you with it. I Hope That The Road Leads You Somewhere Beautiful , Somewhere You Belong is jazzy and cool . As the climaxes, there is a triumphant phase dedicated to Andie Gill’s partner Roisin, who tragically died.

Second Star On The Right And Straight On Till Morning has huge chiming riffs and and subtle synths. They are sublimely blended to make an exhilarating end to this awe inspiring album.

MUSICAL ENJOYMENT

Many of these songs have taken shape over several years. They’ve now been polished up in the studio to create a compelling listening experience. Guitarist Tom Hazlehurst says, “It always will be just playing music that I enjoy with my friends. So if that’s what we did on the album and we had fun making it, then that’s the main goal achieved.” The tightness of their music reflects this closeness between each other and comes through strongly.

The instrumental quintet have chosen to work once again with producer and studio engineer Joe Clayton in the basement of No Studio, within spitting distance of Manchester’s Strangeways Prison. The camaraderie extends to him too as they say, “We just love [Joe’s] sounds. He’s as hands-on as you want him to be. We wanted to have his fingerprints a bit more on it because he’s written and produced a lot of really good records.”

To conclude, their main aim is to have listeners feeling something; either from the experiences they have had that the music evokes, or the new places that the music takes them.

Mission accomplished.

Catch Din Of Celestial Birds on tour with Wildernesses later in the year; you can find all the tour dates here.

Also, check out the bands contribution to our Why I Love column, here.

Din Of Celestial Birds: Bandcamp

At The Barrier: Facebook / X  / Instagram