Tom Honey didn’t do himself any favours by naming his ambient project after the translated title of a Sigur Rós song – to compare his music to the work to that Icelandic band is such an obvious get-out-of-jail-free card when discussing his music. Good Weather For An Airstrike is only ever really influenced by Sigur Rós, though; let me make that clear. While they both make music that is by turns introspective and euphoric, Honey’s creations are far more grounded in ambience.
I know what some of you will be thinking at this point: “Ambient music is inconsequential! It doesn’t have enough substance to it to fully take hold!” This could be said about plenty of other genres at times, too – but let’s not get into that. Another criticism that is levelled at the genre is that it’s ‘boring enough to put you to sleep’. Honey would take that as a compliment, as odd as that may sound: he started the GWFAA project in 2009 to alleviate his own sleeping problems that were brought on by tinnitus.
The album title and song titles are in reference to sleep itself, and more importantly, the sleep cycle. This is all very deliberate, as Underneath the Stars is probably best listened to at night. That’s the time during which I’ve been listening to it, and it works very well for me – I suffer from a disjointed sleeping pattern, and it’s helped a lot with that. Aside from its more practical uses, however, GWFAA’s latest collection is quite versatile: it can be used as background music, or be studied closely, and it is when the latter approach is applied that it is discovered there is much to enjoy.
For me, this album was all about the moment of epiphany I had with it at the start of this month. I was struck by how beautiful it was; I’d never listened all that closely before, but when I turned my attention to the different kinds of textures evident in Another Way Out, suddenly the entire thing fell into place, and soon I was hearing other things that I’d never known were there before. Underneath the Stars is primarily focused on melody; unlike what some people perceive ambient music to be, it is not simply comprised of droning pieces that seem content in going nowhere.
Songs like Frozen in Thought and Delta Waves are subtle and surprisingly moving, the kind of pieces the listener can effortlessly lose themselves in; they are a testament to how beautiful music can be created from so little. Aurora, meanwhile, (which gets a short reprise later on in the album), is the closest thing to a straightforward post-rock song on the album – something which doesn’t make it any less impressive. The fourteen-minute closer Theroux takes a while to build from its meditative beginnings, but its climax is intensely uplifting. GWFAA may have been created with a specific purpose in mind, but it has developed into something much grander – there is a split album with Inachus arriving later this year, and it’s going to be pretty impressive if this is anything to go by.
Another Way Out
Aurora
Underneath the Stars is available from Bandcamp as a CD, as well as in a variety of digital formats, and can be streamed in its entirety.
