Shrinari are a London based duo who play spiritual folk, formed by Lucidia Omamori and Rafael Marchante Angulo and they are mainly a harp and guitar led duo with spiritually uplifting music and lyrically they are promoting the Extinction Rebellion cause and generally hoping to make the planet a better place to live. They are joined on the album by several guest musicians to round out the bands sound.
The album opens with an acapella intro into New Light before the bass gently comes in and the classical guitar part makes it feel very dusky and relaxed.
Ancestral Fire has a wondrous gentle harp in one speaker and the choral backing vocals the other as Lucidia sings of the ancient fires that bring us together and hopefully make us work together to make a better world, her vocals remind me of Feist as the beauty of the backing jars somewhat with the lyrical content of the destruction of our planet.
Desert Path is a very cool poem with some very interesting wordplay accompanied by the harp and acoustic guitar as well as some at times scratchy cello, this is music to lay back and gaze at the stars too.
Reminisce has a real sense of yearning in the vocals that go all Rickie Lee Jones in places as the drums become far more intrusive than they've been, but the sense of a beautiful memory or three being recalled never leaves this song as it becomes more ethereal.
Standing Rock adds some brass to the mix and suddenly sounds like Sarah Mclachlan covering Joni Mitchells Blue complete with some very fine Spanish guitar that when it was released as a single should have got loads of airplay, this is the real stand out song on the album for me, it's masterful and underlying it all is a central message we could all do with hearing.
Listen Up is a rant against all the things stopping real change to make the earth a better healthy place, that this never sounds like a rant but more in the vein of a gentle caress to allow the message to seep in as the music gently intoxicates with its careful structure accentuating the diatribe seamlessly.
Soul Calling (Sweet Medicine Remix) adds some almost organic techno elements to the mix as well as some flute to make it sound like Lucidia is a Siren calling to us to join her team peacefully bringing the love and healing to the earth it needs.
The album closes with The Gift, that I kind of wish was a Velvet Underground Cover, but of course it isn't, instead they sing about The Gift of life and tell must what we need to do to understand and look after each other and the planet in general this is a gently rousing end to a rather hopeful album.
Find out more http://shrinari.com/ https://www.facebook.com/shrinari/ https://shrinari.bandcamp.com/album/hold-on-to-the-hope-though
