Belmont Slope by The Declining Winter (Review)

It’s been three years since The Declining Winter (one of the many projects to emerge from the ashes of the late, great Hood) released their last album, Home for Lost Souls. Belmont Slope is more of the same: pastoral post-rock that re-imagines Bark Psychosis’ gauzy sounds for the British countryside, with a health dollop of melancholy and wistfulness. Indeed, Home Assembly Music describes Belmont Slope as “a love letter to the hills of Yorkshire and Lancashire, a paean to desolate beauty, unattainable love and lost friends.”

Belmont Slope won’t be officially released until this August, but you can hear the first two singles, “My Divided World” and “Later and Later Indeed,” right now. The latter is particularly nice, with Richard Adams’ voice sighing over and against delicately picked acoustic guitar and tapped percussion; meanwhile, drones, forlorn flutes, and even his own echo simmer in the background.