ARCTIC PLATEAU – On A Sad Sunny Day
 
Label: Prophecy Productions
Release: June 12  2009
By: Bulletrider
Rating: 8.5/10
Time: 73:02
Style: Shoegaze/Post-Rock
URL: Arctic Plateau
 

With the introducing words "I am so inspired by the sadness that I feel I have found the joy" Gianluca Divirgilio, being the head of ARCTIC PLATEAU, directly sets the direction the march goes for this new album called On A Sad Sunny Day. Well, march direction maybe being not quite the right word. It's not really a march which one gets on On A Sad Sunny Day. More some kind of dream travel, a lonely walk with many relaxing breaks.

On A Sad Sunny Day knows how to get me from the first note on. Dreamy, towering yet nevertheless light and smooth sounding walls of as well distorted as acoustic guitars winding directly into the listener’s ears and mind.
And indeed… the introductory quote couldn't be more fitting. Though there is a nearly ever present melancholy in the songs, there's always some kind of hope and light shimmering through. The creation of atmosphere and emotion on On A Sad Sunny Day is brilliantly done by ARCTIC PLATEAU. Another point not to be forgotten is the fact that despite all melancholy and the epic-elegiac song structures on On A Sad Sunny Day the song itself always comes first, is never too playful, tricky or complicated and as such is not consumed by the density of the whole album.
Especially good all these ingredients are put together by ARCTIC PLATEAU in the title-track, in the slowly rising Amethyst To #F, the fantastic dense and heavy Iceberg Shoegaze and the driving In Time. But all other songs don't stay behind these in terms of quality and leave me amazed and astonished. Perfect music for dreaming, turning off and forgetting.
Highly recommended for fans of Anathema, who definitely seem to be a major inspiration, Alcest, Jesu and-if putting the screaming vocals away… Amesoeurs.

Simply put On A Sad Sunny Day is an amazing, a stunning and mainly just plain beautiful album!