Although ‘O Avalanche’ consists of eleven separate songs, it overwhelmingly feels like a forty-minute mood piece, almost like a short arthouse film. The words are poetic and return to themes like landscape and environment as it evokes the place in which it was written, Mallorca. Sun-dappled energy shines through. It is very much a solo record as Fionn Regan wrote and performed the whole album on a range of instrumentation: acoustic guitar, bass, piano, harmonium, rhythms, drums and atmospherics. His only assistance came courtesy of backing vocals from Anna Friel on the title track and co-production from Ian Grimble. While it is a record that sounds relaxed, naturalistic and at ease with itself, it was tightly constructed with Regan originally writing two or three album’s worth of material to narrow down into a collection of songs that felt simpatico with each other.
By the standards of what is to follow, opener ‘Islands’ is quite propulsive with quickly strummed guitar and percussion that is more prominent than elsewhere. There is a celebratory air to the references to dancing all night in the Spanish sand and never wanting to go home. However, an element of doubt creeps in with the thought, “Do you call the shots? What if the shots just call the game?” While ‘Teix Mountain’ is still set on the beach, it is far more harmonic, his voice overlayed in a manner that recalls how those of Fleet Foxes knitted together. It feels highly romantic in its description of taking each other’s arms, walking into the night with fears all gone.
The presence of Friel on the titular track is highly complementary. There is no sense of dissonance, just an additional layer. The song has a slightly feverish element with its minimally repetitive guitar, piano, increasingly heavenly harmonies and a positive outlook with its belief that “there’s a light that brings good souls together.”
‘Blood is Thicker than Wine’ maintains the night-time, open air mood from its opening observations about being the last ones awake, perhaps even the final people alive on the planet, walking home through the lightning sheets.
The sense of continuity is emphasised by the album’s centre point being ‘Anja I’ and ‘Anja II’. On the former, the harmonies are blissful, marked out by piano intercessions. The latter is impressionistic with its harmonium, atmospherics and eery references (“Vampires scatter when we walk on by.”)
There is a Spanish, classical quality to the guitar on ‘Farewell’ and a further trip into the mountains which ends with the most optimistic of parting notes. ‘Into the Light of the Sun’ is one of the most immediately accessible songs reflecting the impact of sunlight with its heavenly, shimmery harmonies and is over way too soon. ‘Headphones’ is more muted, suggesting both the immersion that earphones offer and the transience of even the happiest moments. Season’s end is captured on ‘Swimming the Lake / Flowers and Stones’ in its setting of winter tropical storms but Regan’s vocals retain a delicious lightness.
With an enviable circularity, ‘O Avalanche’ ends with ‘Deia Song / Llucalcari’ which references the Mallorca mountains with the romantic couple imagining everything was a dream, dying in each other’s arms underneath the avalanche. The way the sound breaks up in the closing seconds suggests a finality and fade out.
Although individual singles have been released from the album and would be pleasant enough caught on the radio, they would be in danger of drifting over the listener. However, ‘O Avalanche’ makes complete sense when heard in its entirety. Only full immersion captures its wonderful accumulation of detail and conjuring of mood, like the work of a leading auteur where the drama is understated yet forms its own distinct, all-encompassing world.
Fionn Regan: O Avalanche – 1 November 2024 (Nettwerk)
Fionn Regan – FAREWELL (Official Video) (youtube.com)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
