Dark, emotive and brooding One Sided Horse (Mark Whiteside) and noted Icelandic musician Kalli have joined forces to deliver ‘The First EP’, a Double ‘A’ side single & download with two instrumental versions and an acoustic demo, which will be released on the 27th of this month.
The two tracks consist of Paint The One Star with OSH on vocals and Kalli providing backing vocals and additional instruments and Coming Down where roles are reversed.
Fans of Mark will know his pained, touching vocals from One Sided Horse and his other projects Desks and The Opening Song and he delivers once again with the moving, sparse beauty of Paint The One Star. His voice has a quality all of its own, one that really touches your heart with its plaintive and melancholy tone. Mark Barlow’s piano provides a gloriously wistful feel and the strings from Arnar Gudjonsson on both tracks are just sublime. It’s a beautiful piece of music imbued with a fragile grace that brings to mind Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ and will leave you visibly moved.
Kalli is the former singer & songwriter of Reykjavik’s Without Gravity and Mark has long been a fan. Coming Down is another wonderfully low key, understated piece of music that showcases the dramatic cinematic soundscapes of his homeland, infused with some whimsical Americana that gives it a bewitchingly nostalgic atmosphere and one where the space between the notes matters just as much. Once again, the graceful strings add a real polish to this excellent song.
Great music always has the capacity to move you and to give life new meaning, it can lift you up when you are down and help you celebrate the highs. These two fantastic musicians have combined to deliver something rather special, broody and dramatic in parts but, ultimately, this is a joyful and uplifting EP that will leave you in a much better place.