In the Absence of Snowman

I’m not sure I even remember how to do this. After accidentally (and then intentionally) taking the summer off from A Reminder, I think I’m in the mood to shout into the darkness about some bands and records I’ve been enjoying lately.

Long overdue for a write-up is Snowman’s third (and final) album, Absence. Released earlier this year to pretty great reviews (as with everything they did), Absence saw the band once again expand their sound, this time in a more ambient direction. If the self-titled debut is a vibrant(ly dark) daytime record and The Horse, The Rat and The Swan is a terrifying nightfall experience, then Absence is definitely a middle-of-the-night nebulous trauma that evokes (and elicits) an intense dreamlike state. And who doesn’t love a trilogy that ends with, perhaps, its crowning achievement?

Hyena, posted below, is one of the more tribal and aggressive moments of the album. I just love the eerie atmosphere created by this one (and the entire record, really).

Absence’s nocturnal brilliance is a fitting way for Snowman to say ‘goodbye.’ As the album was being written and recorded the band came to realize that this was it. Various band members were flung across different parts of Europe (and elsewhere) and the work of maintaining the band was becoming impossible. But they’ve left us with a remarkable body of work in the span of their five years and I have no doubt that in the years to come, people will be discovering this little band and lamenting the fact that they never saw them live or that they didn’t continue recording. Nobody else was doing what Snowman were doing over the last few years and Absence, one of 2011′s finest albums, just reaffirms that belief.

And how about a bizarre video for White Walls?