Rhys Marsh worked on Sentiment for a couple of years and plays all the instruments, which could well explain its peculiar intensity.
While his work with The Autumn Ghost has a brooding, melancholic quality and his vocals on Kaukasus material form part of exploratory instrumentals, here his songs are more concentrated. Marsh’s music embodies a kind of yin-yang balance of light and darkness throughout. Calling In The Night opens proceedings in dramatic fashion, strongly melodic but urgent over agitated acoustic and electric guitar, and unfussy drums, but with one hell of a Mellotron adding heft and an eerie sense of unease. This restless shift of mood and dynamics runs throughout, together with dramatic elemental lyrical imagery. With its acoustic guitar and synth, Pictures Of Ashes initially has a feel of mid-70s Genesis, but its lovely pop melody builds into turbulent passages with towering Mellotrons and ominous bass. Marsh has a rich, handsome voice, adept at balladry but with the power to navigate these great groundswells. He never resorts to histrionics, but becomes particularly impassioned on the gripping closer Give Me (What You Need).
