Message to Bears – Carved from Tides (2016)

'On Message To Bears’ fourth LP Carved From Tides Jerome Alexander throws all caution to the wind and delivers an experience emotive enough to tug at every fibre in a heartstring. Released on 1 July, Carved From Tides sees Jerome eschew the arbitrary boundaries that have been erected between synthetic music and music made on more traditional instruments. Lead single ‘I’ll Lead You There’ is exemplary. Starting with a gloomy acoustic arpeggio that wouldn’t be out of place in the hands of Elliott Smith or Nick Drake, its folky textures are soon penetrated by a thudding beat over which collaborator Will Samson lends his tender reverberating vocals. The heart-wrenching mood of the arrangement lends it a depth of feeling that characterises the whole LP.'

'Jerome’s love of ambient music is highlighted in the opener ‘Never Be’. It’s a cinematic start to the album, replete with sweeping synths and strings. The muffled piano lends some rhythmic shape to its openness. It ends tempestuously, with thunderous bass raging against the dying synths as it refuses to go gently into the night.'

Of his mentality when creating Carved From Tides Jerome says:
"The album is supposed to reflect a transitional period in one's life, referencing change in circumstances, decisions, relationships with others and evolution as an individual, whether subtle or not, which thereby influences where you are now, and realising wherever you are now is ok, and that you are in a constant state of flux. When writing it, I was going through what felt like a very transitional period myself, and I guess this was my way of processing it."

'Composed, recorded and produced between both his home and studio in North-East London over the past year, Carved From Tides is Jerome’s most sophisticated work yet. The title refers to the capacity of something fluid and transitional to be able to affect and mould what appears to be solid and stable over time. It is through the fluidness of Jerome’s approach - in not pigeonholing instruments with expectations of what sort of music they should make - that Jerome achieves just this. The fluidity of music itself is the tide that he carves his masterwork from. And the success he achieves here is solid indeed.'