Beguiled by Tim Story (Review)

The colorful, blurred, slightly abstract cover art for Tim Story’s Beguiled is the perfect visual accompaniment for Story’s ambient chamber music. Obvious touchstones for Story’s exquisite soundscapes are Michael Brook, Daniel Lanois, and Harold Budd, but there’s also a melancholy at work that makes Beguiled must-hear material for fans of darkwave artists like Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Soulwhirlingsomewhere.

The title track quickly sets the tone, with blurry, twilit keyboard melodies and hazy guitar lines that drift by with seductive grace. One immediately feels as if they’re entering a tiny little sonic world, and throughout the album’s twelve songs — which have evocative titles like “In the Days of Small Sorrows” and “The Luminous, The Dark” — Story’s sublime arrangements never break that spell. One can never accuse Story of false advertising; this is a truly beguiling and bewitching album, and easily one of the best releases I’ve ever heard from the Hearts of Space label.