A Response to The Milky Way Over Ratlinghope by Bibio

I went into this song not knowing what to expect, and came out of the experience thrilled to have a new found enjoyment for instrumental music. The gently recurring bowstring riff fills the attention immediately and The album cover art is a Swallow silhouette, flying over an impressionist countryside, the bird’s black silhouette is carefully filled in with color and lines to resemble a downtown nighttime city scape. A maritime symbol of hope, the swallow is a stowaway bird that would nest and travel with sailors all over the world. The swallow will remain on the same boat with the same crew until they would finally return home, sometimes many years later, at which point the swallow would go directly to its own home nest and family. A single, dense and varied voice, or a gentle group of voices harmonize a few notes, enough to bring my attention away from the art.

As I type that description of the cover art the song is growing in complexity, the pace of the song both swells and quickens, like a river getting rain somewhere uphill back in time. More stings and melodies fill my mind so carefully, as though the rhythms may bump into each other as they passby one another. Then just like that the song slows into a gently rhythmic repeating bell tone, eventually coming to a stop. The song leaves me full and content, and I am thankful to have heard it.