Tasteful, analogue synth work from the duo of Mike Pollard (records as Pale Blue Sky among others, runs the Arbor label) and Joseph Raglani. Two Lenses is a collection of live-in-the-studio recordings made between 2008-09, although it could have been recorded at any time in the last 40 years and left, unremarked, on a shelf in a studio somewhere. Indeed, if that was the case, with the seemingly desperate need to reclaim lost albums from decades past, people might be getting a lot more excited about this.
It sounds great, but doesn’t really stick in the mind; the guitar of “Understanding Interdependence” provides a little extra dimension to the full on synth sound, and “Aspect” has a bit more heft to it than some of the other tracks. It does end well with “Closing”, where everything fits together beautifully, and is the strongest track by some margin. Perhaps this is a soundtrack for an unrealised movie, and all we have is our imagination spooling through our mind’s eye. Alternatively, it would capture the attention more if this actually was an old recording rather than just sounding like one; whatever the artistic imperative behind this album, it can’t help but sound like it’s following in someone else’s footsteps. Whatever the case, this is a pleasant enough listen but it just fails to make that vital connection to the listener. (Jeremy Bye)
a closer listen 