A Lilac Decline – Eternity Bores Me

Rusted Rail

With A Lilac Decline inaugurated as an anagrammatically anointed solo venture for Ireland-based Swedish visual artist Cecilia Danell on 2017’s sparse psych-folk framed The Mountain Rages, operations have subsequently evolved into more of an ensemble enterprise.

2020’s languidly electrified sophomore Shelter From The Shadows subtly signified this shift, which the newly dispersed Eternity Bores Me further embeds. Having also stretched her considerable collaborative talents across choice releases from labelmates Moving Statues, Cubs and Loner Deluxe in-between times, this third long-in-the-works album pushes the project into deeper group assembly methods and a wider sonic palette.

Adroitly assisted throughout — over a piecemeal three-to-four-year recording process — by multi-instrumentalist producer / Rusted Rail label owner Keith Wallace (Moving Statues, Cubs, Loner Deluxe) and drummer / guitarist Brian Kelly (So Cow, Moving Statues, Loner Deluxe), the ten gathered pieces capture A Lilac Decline’s transitions between introspective pastoralism and wider-eyed stargazing. This isn’t to say that all the up-close intimacy of earlier works has been pushed out of the airlock. Danell’s clear warm Mary Lorson-meets-Nina Persson tones are still front and centre across Eternity Bores Me as the collection radiates across expansive philosophical planes.

Consequently, the soaring “Shadow Days”, with its eddying electro-acoustic guitar meshes and distant drums, acts a sublime take-off moment. Thereafter in orbit, we’re taken through near-weightless Yo La Tengo-tinged astral-art-pop (“That’s What I’ll Do” and “Twilight Wing”); rustic shoegaze sprawling (“Breathing In” and “Here On The Coast”); earthier melodica-driven dreaminess (“Net Of Time”); early Sparklehorse-like banjo-flecked balminess (“Sunset Song II”); and a blissful six-minute string-bending coda smeared with welcome echoes of Eleventh Dream Day’s Ursa Major as well as Brian Eno’s Another Green World (“Eyes To The Sky”).

Whilst the somewhat murky mix and generally unhurried pacing dissuade instant gratification, the slow burn approach of Eternity Bores Me will reward those already in thrall to the consistently reliable micro-scene from which it comfortingly emanates.

-Adrian-