Duncan Evans - Prayers for an Absentee (2018)

Duncan Evans' sophomore release Prayers For An Absentee is a collection of eight prayers transformed into songs that display the next step in his songwriting journey. Inspired by the likes of Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Swans, Evans is crafting dark folk rock that fuses elements of post-punk with singer songwriter sensibilities, tinged by psychedelia. His first recording with a full band, this is Duncan Evans exploring sounds reminiscent of acts like Wovenhand, Sparklehorse, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and even Current 93. Once a guitarist for A Forest Of Stars (under the monicker of Henry Hyde Bronsdon), Duncan Evans has been pursuing his solo career since 2013. With it's storyteller approach, his first record has been called a "dark folk masterpiece." Prayers For An Absentee is steeped in sadness and what the Portuguese call "saudade" - an inexplicable longing - which runs through the spine of the whole album connecting all the songs from the reality of the everyday to the fantasy of the never. Going against the grain of a society bred on cold isolation, Prayers For An Absentee is an achingly warm and open album; at times fragile and quiet, at others abrasive and angered, yet never less than honest and truthful.