"This release has been out for a month in America, but as of yet with no British distribution. I like to regard them as my secret band - but their mix of eastern folk with modern electronica and sound experimentation really deserves attention. Black Forest/Black Sea merge old and new styles with devastatingly beautiful consequences. 'Sevastopol' opens in a deceptively simple manner, cello ebbs with picked guitar, it sounds like the Rachels dancing with The Dirty Three - until detuned electronics and backwards distortion give it a dark foreboding feel, like a folk band on acid (but nothing like The Grateful Dead). 'Blackbird On Gray Sky' has cellist, Miriam, singing over a banjo motif, the melody is gorgeous, then ultra loud, DIY as fuck drums smash in. It's scary (in a good way). Black Forest/Black Sea experiment with music, the instrumentation lies within the classical school, reminiscent of chamber pop and slow-core bands such as Low. But they also play with sound; broken drum machines and ambient hisses initially seem to jar with the music, then fall behind it creating warmth and diversity, 'Banjo Song' sounding like a lullaby amidst a power surge. With 'Lump In Throat' electronic keyboards and omni chords establish a beautiful, slow, warm progression whilst delayed Hawaiian guitar glistens over it. Then parts slip out of tune, the guitar gets lost in its own delay, only to re-emerge under a warm blanket of noise. It's beautiful, when Brian Wilson was simultaneously trying to write Smile and slowly breaking down, I'd imagine these were the sounds he heard in his head. That really is the highest compliment I can pay a piece of music." - Jonathan Falcone, Do Something Pretty Fanzine, UK
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