Start to finish, Lost In Light features careful and tender guitarwork, sometimes with a fuzz and twang reminiscent of Spaghetti Western soundtracks. ‘Night Rain’, with its muted trumpet and detuned piano, immediately calls up images of a darkened saloon in some ghost town. Other tracks have a more ethereal texture, with the gossamer ‘Divine Wind’ taking its lyrics from an obscure Swedish poem about death and renewal.
Sumie’s sweet, melancholy voice effectively weaves a gloomy atmosphere, but her lyrical imagery – full moons, stormy skies and lonely lovers – is too familiar to leave a mark. The album’s mournful mood remains static, never growing too anguished to threaten its pristine sound. Only ‘Walk Away’, the rosy, romantic finale, expresses something other than diffuse sadness.
Lost In Light never displeases the ear. Pop it on during the cool evening hours, and no one will tell you to turn it off. But this spectral creature leaves no footprints.
5.5/10
