Album Details

• Artist: Bibio
• Album: Vignetting The Compost
• Label: Mush
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2009-03-26

One of my favorite things about this job (reviewing the masses that come into the office) is picking up a CD that you've never heard about, hasn't been hyped, you haven't read one previous review of and you fall in love with. That's Vignetting The Compost, the new album from Stephen Wilkinson's Bibio project. It appears that Bibio gets classed as an electronic act but there is so much soul, heart and charm put into this music that you have a hard time relating to the electronics of it. Oh, the loops and samples are there indeed and on some songs like "Under The Pier" the songs drone on, but in a good way. And other songs you could easily class as folk. 

While not quite as good a guitarist as Bill Frisell, you might liken some of the guitar-work to Bill, very atmospheric and non-invasive. Stephen also uses quite a bit of field recording to enhance his music. There are similarities to the more organic Boards of Canada songs but there are more similarities to Grizzly Bear that BoC. There are times where Vignetting feels more an experiment than just music, such as the track "The Clothesline And The Silver Birch". It all comes out alright though and Bibio is just doing what he has to do.

That being said, I can't see myself listening to Vignetting The Compost repeatedly, but it is a disc I'll hang onto. It will most definitely fill the void when you can't quite find that perfect disc to get work done to. 

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