German post-rock ensemble Glen has gone through quite a few line-ups, with guitarists Wilhelm Stegmeier and Eleni Ampelakiotou as the core duo since their inception in 2017. Their latest album is called It Was A Bright Cold Day In April,... - yes, that's from the first line of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four - and the five piece suite ends with a track named after the second part of that sentence - ... and the clocks were striking thirteen. The music is draped in ominous darkness, taking it slow to lure the listener into a vortex with swirling guitars, gnarly shimmering keyboards, and dense percussion.
They allow each lengthy track to run its course, with only shifts in volume offering some respite. It is a wordless warning about democratic values being in serious jeopardy. Trying to make it all go away be doing drugs (Lotosesser succumbing to the lure of a lesser evil), when the powers that be are resorting to violence to have their way (Brute Force) or even in a more devilish scheme are offering false hope for a brighter future that ends with the world going up in flames (Sublime - inspired by Denis Diderot's Pensées philosophiques), in the end all those efforts might be futile.
