Liminal Sky to Release All Tomorrow’s Darkness June 19
There’s a lot of info below, and some of the reason behind that is I’d like to have it archived for when and if I want it later, like, as an example, to review. The roots of Liminal Sky lie in Messenger, in which Daniel Knight took part and Jaime Gomez Arellano produced, but the melancholy lush sound of their debut album, All Tomorrow’s Darkness, is its own kind of subdued pastoralia. The collaboration extends beyond the two as Knight and Arellano are joined throughout All Tomorrow’s Darkness by the likes of Hexvessel‘s Mat McNerny, Ulver‘s Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg, Karin Park of Årabrot and a handful of others, creating an invariably fleshed-out sound that seems at times to have its roots still in minimalism, but is all the more immersive for the worldmaking aspects of “Penance” or “Oar on the Mooring,” each of nine inclusions working toward its own developed ends.
Due out June 19 like the headline says, on Karisma Records, it gets to be pretty heady stuff, so if you’re not immediately taken by the single “Some Other Time” — audio/video below — give it some room to breathe, maybe take a breath yourself, and give it another chance before you form your opinion one way or the other.
The following came down the PR aire:
Liminal Sky announce new album and stream first single ‘Some Other Time’
Feat. guest appearances from Ulver, Hexvessel, Grave Pleasures and more
All Tomorrow’s Darkness due 19th June via Karisma Records
Liminal Sky is the rebirth of the creative partnership behind progressive post rock band Messenger, brought to life by producer Jaime Gomez Arellano and Daniel Knight. Their debut album All Tomorrow’s Darkness, featuring Mat McNerney (Hexvessel/Grave Pleasures), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and members of Årabrot, Ulver and Jaga Jazzist will be released on 19th June, via Karisma Records.
Liminal Sky are proud to release a their first single ‘Some Other Time’, expressing their beautifully bleak and vivid exploration of grief and illumination.
Watch the video for ‘Some Other Time’ here: https://youtu.be/VukiXVnKDRU
Stream and pre-order All Tomorrow’s Darkness here: https://orcd.co/some-other-time
Liminal Sky comment that the single is: “Written in the shadow of sudden and slow loss, Gomez losing a close family member to Covid, and Mat’s mother slowly disappearing through Alzheimer’s. Grief reshapes memory, not as an ending, but something that persists and evolves. This song is about the endurance of grief, and the pain of love without saying goodbye.”
Tracklist:
1. Some Other Time (feat. Mat McNerney, Lars Horntveth)
2. A Solitary Future (feat. Kristoffer Rygg)
3. In Some Secret Universe (feat. Mat McNerney)
4. Forget Me Not (feat. Mat McNerney)
5. Penance (feat. Karin Park)
6. The Weight of Heaven (feat. Kristoffer Rygg)
7. Algebra of Unknowing (feat. Mat McNerney)
8. Oar on the Mooring (feat. Mat McNerney)
9. All Tomorrow’s Darkness (feat. Mat McNerney, Daniel O’Sullivan)
Liminal Sky is the meeting point of two musicians searching for a way out of the darkness. Continuing their work from their previous band Messenger, Jaime Gomez Arellano and Daniel Knight channel sadness and loss into a shared musical language. The borderland between despondency and tear-stained hope has a name: Liminal Sky.
Progressive, widescreen guitars chime out, stark yet luminous, barren yet revealing as Liminal Sky layers and climaxes each song to a heady reverberating crescendo. The instrumentation on All Tomorrow’s Darkness is seamlessly eclectic, and spirited by a constellation of guest musicians and voices who appear throughout. Mat McNerney’s vocals and lyrics on six of the album’s nine tracks form the backbone of the record. Crafting the lyrics and vocal arrangements together with Gomez and Knight in Finland to establish the soul of their debut album, McNerney’s words articulate the album’s terrain. Having recently lost his mother, McNerney brought a profound personal resonance with songs like ‘In Some Secret Universe’ and ‘Algebra of Unknowing’ expanding the album’s honesty and depth.
Other voices move through All Tomorrow’s Darkness like spectral presences: Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) brings a fragile, shimmering intensity to two tracks, while Karin Park (Årabrot) adds raw emotional gravity to ‘Penance,’ and Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, Grumbling Fur, Årabrot collaborator) provides a haunting vocal invocation on the title track. Around them, instrumental colours bloom across the record’s expanse with Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist, The National Bank) threading saxophone, synths and lap steel, while Alicia Nurho (violinist/violist in contemporary classical & experimental music) paints the album with pale, trembling strings. Anders Møller (Kåre & The Cavemen / Euroboys, Ulver live percussionist) deepens the rhythmic pulse with ritualistic percussion, Tore Ylwizaker (Ulver) in one of his last recorded performances contributes a ghostly piano refrain, and Ole Alexander Halstensgård (Ulver) shadows the soundscape with dissolving electronic textures. Finally, Matt Rozeik (Necro Deathmort) (multi-instrumentalist/producer known for atmospheric electronic and alternative rock work) adds subtle, smouldering synth tones. Every collaborator adds texture without altering direction, held together by Gomez’s careful production and cohesive sonic identity for clarity and atmosphere.
Released worldwide by Karisma Records on 16th June, All Tomorrow’s Darkness introduces Liminal Sky as a music of fearless vulnerability. It is melancholic post-rock scraped down to bone, grief and beauty without resolution. For fans of Messenger, (early) Opeth, Jeff Buckley, Ulver, The Mars Volta, Anathema, Radiohead, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, and Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden era.
All Tomorrow’s Darkness marks both an ending and a beginning: a final chapter in a long, difficult period for its creators, and the opening of a new path for Liminal Sky. Gomez has already begun writing the next Liminal Sky album. Whether out of necessity or instinct, the world of Liminal Sky continues to expand, bleakly, beautifully and lit by the faint glow that appears when all other lights have gone out.
Liminal Sky are:
Jaime Gomez Arellano
Daniel Knight
https://liminalskyband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/liminalskyband/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579289855890
https://www.karismarecords.no/
https://karismarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/karismarecords/
https://www.facebook.com/karismarecords
For those that may be interested, it is well worth checking out the two Messenger records, ‘Illusory Blues’ and ‘Threnodies’ particularly if you like your Prog Rock psychedelic and folky.
They didn’t get the attention their music merited. As far as I am aware Liminal Sky was meant to be a new Messenger record, but some band members were ultimately not interested in recording anything further.