ALBUM REVIEW: Xylouris White – The Forest in Me

Drag City

Released: 14.04.23

Is it a collusion or collision of cultures? Working in different continents in an isolated world Cretan folk musician George Xylouris, Australian percussionist Jim White and former Fugazi guitarist Guy Picciotto have crafted and grafted a series of instrumental sketches into their own ecosystem of inner mood music.

There is a tension in this internal forest, with the percussion often cutting across or fighting through the confusion of strings for light and life. Snatches of folk threaten to break out into a melodic tune only to be scratched away in a burst of drumming, before rising again with the ringing notes of a Cretan lute. Ambient, cinematic, an inner outer strangeness abounds.