Message from the Artist
CellarLight are two middle-aged men who never quite let go of the rock star dream, despite edging steadily towards dinosaur status. Formerly bandmates in various rock groups, they eventually realised they could no longer be bothered hauling endless gear around just to play gigs.
Now armed with a guitar, a few synths and an MPC, they make music in the hope that future digital archaeologists might one day dust the files off and wonder what went wrong. Occasionally, they even take the bus into the nearest city to play their songs for other people — preferably in the smallest pub they can find.
Inspired by a long list of depressive artists, CellarLight spent far too long recording an album, only to end up with six tracks worth releasing. The EP It’s Not for Me to Tell is now ready to quietly lower the mood across the internet.
CellarLight consists of Haakon Aarvik Tobiassen and Arne C Skjaeveland.
Navigating in the Dark, Buddy
Music Review
By Dee, Unsigned Reviews
Navigating in the Dark, Buddy, subtly grabs your attention with Rhodes soundalikes that take me to a restaurant on some popular, but empty beach at the end of the season. As the bass drone begins more keyboard fill comes up in the mix like an ocean sunrise. Really, that’s where the composition took me. A nicely conditioned vocal blesses us with the message in the bottle. “…you found peace and quiet”. A great concept, to sit on the multi-timberal percussion sequence. Makes for a tasteful interlude before the Fender soundalikes step in and provide some complimentary nudges to the melody.
I’m a fan of the drone and percussion combo. It keeps my attention focused on the background and as each instrumental or instrumental movement washes through the music I listen for the spaces in between. My experience has shown me some flaws in that style where some crackling or other discordance interferes with the musical delivery. This isn’t a production thing, with me, it is a compositional thing and always something I try to find and fix pre-mastering, though I often discover the problem there. However, with Navigating in the Dark, Buddy by Cellar Light there is a wide void between the syncopated and the melodic. This gave the song it’s big resonant sincere quality that only enhanced and focused my attention ever more.
Overall, this song has quite a bit of performance variety layered on a substrate of well-conditioned beds. I appreciate the slow build in the song structure and that takes imagination and patience. As a side note, when you check out Navigating in the Dark, Buddy by Cellar Light, let it roll. Song 2, A Storm you Know on this playlist has even more sparkle and daring do, if you like that sort of thing. Oh and, BTW, great band name!
Musical style: contemporary euro stylings with pop sensibilities,
Source: Website form.
Website: Spotify page
Song Writer: Haakon Aarvik Tobiassen, Arne C Skjaeveland
City/Country: Norway
Song link: https://open.spotify.com/track/55D2XoGa0nOQKGIMyAhf9h?si=9dd711291c7e4e33
