Unto Ashes

Pretty Haunted Things Unto Ashes Limited edition

Unto Ashes conjures a stirring and captivating album, simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. Pretty haunted things — their eleventh Projekt release in a career stretching two decades — effortlessly spans the ages from a dark and medieval flair to modern apocalyptic gothic-folk. Recorded almost entirely in an octagonal Victorian parlor room, bewitched by centuries-old traditions, the songs of reflective solemnity are swathed in dramatic, soaring choruses executed by Ericah Hagle, Michael Laird, and Bret Helm (of Audra).

Unto Ashes has wrought music with an unusually broad array of diverse instruments, including hammered dulcimer, harmonium, autoharp, psaltery, viola da gamba, acoustic guitar, piano, and Arabic percussion. The songs are masterfully crafted by Laird, whose enchanting production is characterized by a gossamer of sonic treatments.

As is their custom, Unto Ashes’ songs are unified in their explorations of love, loss, and life. There are moments of quiet reverie followed by epic revelry. Ericah Hagle’s “White Noise” presents a harrowing hospital farewell; the melancholic and exalted “I’m Too High” reflects on a distant past; the mesmerizing “I’m Living in a Coma” concerns a flat-lined relationship and could almost be classified as psychedelic music; “Letter from Choco to Melody” is a magnificent eulogy to a beloved rescue cat, and can also be seen as a testament to undying love; the descending melody and preternatural harmonies on “Don’t Ask Me If I’m Crazy” are unforgettable. Strictly speaking, there is a love ballad on the album, although it is deceptively disguised as an anthem “For My Funeral”; some listeners have sworn that this is “the song” that must be played for them on “that day.”

Unto Ashes pay homage to one of their early heroes, Gary Numan, with a breathtaking cover version of “My Dying Machine” performed exclusively on Arabic and Oriental instruments.

CD in 4-panel digipak, Limited edition of 500.