Vines of Harmony: A lotusbliss Album Review

by - June 10, 2021


Over the last year and a half, the Gauton brothers have had the opportunity to make sure the next release for their band, lotusbliss, was everything they wanted in an album.

The four-track EP, Bittersweet, was their pandemic project that left them with more songs than ever. From spending months at their parents’ home in the countryside to various bedrooms and studios, these songs represent the latest exploration of their lives.

“We went with a group of songs that we really all resonated with, that musically flowed well into each other, but importantly, conceptually had a thread linking them all together,” lead guitarist and vocalist Josh said.

The first track, “The Horror”, is what Josh called a “lifetime of recollection from three introverted thinkers” when we spoke to them earlier this year. The lyrics accurately describe the anxiety that comes with not being able to forgive yourself, even if everyone else already has.

The second track, “Thunder In the Room”, was also released as the second single and touched on societal structures. The accompanying music video plays off of those structures as they perform underneath a bridge and amongst nature.

“Cedar” and “Reculver” are nostalgic both lyrically and sonically. While “Cedar” speaks of places that hold significant memories, “Reculver” dives into how those memories become distorted over time.

“That thread that linked the songs was this exploration of the duality of what we perceive as reality - how our experiences and emotions colour how we see ourselves and the world around us,” Josh said. “We touched on nostalgia, forgiveness, anger and self-doubt - often not reaching conclusions but more documenting the journey of unpacking them.”

Bittersweet (Re-edits) is an alternative look at the four tracks, where instead of making a song the ‘traditional’ way, they allowed themselves to “be guided by a chain reaction of ideas inspired by riffs, patterns and musical moments in our original recordings.” Josh, Seth and Adam each reworked a song as well as their drummer, Josh Gale (also known as Single Ruin).

This time around, due to the nature of the world, Bittersweet was much more of an isolated project. Coming together to track the songs meant that most of the parts were already written and demoed, and was both an adventure and a challenge.

“We were all really pleased with the outcome, although it did feel like it took more work to get over the finish line as we weren’t able to fluidly create and bounce ideas off each other,” Josh said. “Going forward, we’re excited to spend more time jamming out ideas to see if they can develop into fully-fledged songs.”

Bittersweet transports the listener to a place of hearts and flowers for songs rich in harmony and tranquility. lotusbliss continues to take advantage of that brotherly unity and explore a soundscape as unique as their talents.

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