Soulwhirlingsomewhere: Hope Was (2CD) (Digital)

Product Description

This item is out-of-print, and here for historical purposes. Available digitally.

Hope Was was re-released in a limited edition ecoWallet, quantity: 110
Now out of print.

All Music Guide: Like the Pyewackit EP which preceded it, the two-disc Hope Was sees Soul Whirling Somewhere’s music take a turn toward more organic, acoustic-based sounds. An oppressively dark and mournful album, Michael Plaster’s third full-length is in essence a concept record exploring the fallout from a broken romance, compounded by an inability to let go; each note is plainly deeply personal, and at times Hope Was makes for almost painful listening — it’s beautiful in its way, but it leaves the listener exhausted, especially over the course of two CDs.

When asked to summarize the feelings that went into making his 1998 2CD release, Soul Whirling Somewhere’s Michael Plaster, summed it up with blunt honesty: “Hope Was is about not letting go, not being able to let go, not wanting to let go — ever.” A surrender to hopelessness and despair wrought by the inability to accept and move on after a relationship is over, this double-CD set explores longing and loss, panic and pain, sadness and self-absorbed misery. Energetic, jagged, uncomfortable acoustics are juxtaposed against serene, motionless electronics, becoming a schizophrenic backdrop and musical metaphor to the forlorn feelings expressed on Hope Was.