AFRAID TO AWAKE – A HAUNTING AT SEA (2024), Proximity Records/ Bandcamp: review and interview

“A Haunting at Sea” is a different kind of album from Steven McCabe than his long-lived ELEGANT SIMPLICITY project. For a start, it is totally solo (although in spirit he is classified as a solo artist) and, for the record, plays all the guitars and keyboards as well as bass, flute and percussion. The album opens with an electronic overture of sorts called ‘Escapology’ that Steven describes in his helpful liner notes as featuring “spooky noises” and “squelchy Moog” in an “otherworldly far out” style. There follows, with much use of samples and effects, a four-part concept piece entitled ‘Adrift’, a song cycle (but note, no singing), impressionistic vignettes with changing moods from foreboding to relief, ‘Adrift III’ being “loosely jazz based” with guitar defining the melody and percussion and synth taking us on an unexpected journey. The title track is by far the most substantive, clocking in at 23:50 and will have broad appeal to prog fans and those who enjoy the music of Elegant Simplicity in particular. The nearly 6-minute long ‘Ice Dance’ provides an optimistic ending. “A Haunting to Sea” is an album that will repay repeated listens, and to help to probe the album more deeply, I asked STEVEN MCCABE a few questions:

Steven, what inspired an album specifically about a haunting at sea? Also, as far as the ‘storyline’ is concerned, what did you have in mind either literally or allegorically.

I can’t remember what I was watching, but there was a scene of some chap in a row boat in the middle of nowhere and it crossed my mind how frightening that must be. From there, I thought: what if the fellow is haunted by ghosts from every facet of his life? What if there were bells calling him like sirens to his final destiny? How absolutely terrifying would that be? And it would get worse the more time passed. I was thinking of Sirens and using bells as a kind of substitute for vocals: it provided a really ominous sound. eventually declining into being haunted by everything from his past, present and imagined future.

The music sounds very impressionistic and you refer to spooky noises, dark foreboding, ominous bells and otherworldly sounds. You use no lyrics presumably to let the album speak for itself and provide an open-endedness to allow the listener to interpret the music. While your music is mostly yourself with a little help from your friends, as with Elegant Simplicity, is Afraid to Wake a project you envisage continuing in a more electronic, synth based musical form?

Yes, the point of the project was to release music that I felt didn’t sit within the Elegant Simplicity banner. In the past, there were many tracks I released under that name that are not band pieces - but they fit the narrative of the album so it was OK to do so. But for this project, which I wrote in about 7-10 days, it was great to be freed from having to think about what the bass or drums might be doing. On a technical level, it is way easier to mix as it is not as complex or layered and everything has a space designed purely for it. I already have a second album recorded: it’s not mixed or anything, but it is a step on from the first one - albeit with longer tracks!

The first part of the album is not much more than 10 minutes long across its 5 pieces while the title track is nearly 24 minutes long and, for the first time, gets into a groove more redolent of rock than electronic music. I thought of Jade Warrior here. Is that a fair comparison?

I knew I wanted a long piece, simply to summarise the previous events (though they make no direct reference to them), and to also break it up a bit. It's quite tricky doing something that length and to keep it interesting. If you listen very hard, the entire song has a central one note drone running right through it which ebbs and flows quite hypnotically. When the ‘band’ comes in, we get loads of guitars and stuff. It’s a super contrast to the stark minimalism of what has gone before. I have seven Jade Warrior albums and it has been a long time since I listened to them so, yes, I think that would be a fair comparison.

'Ice Dance', the final piece, suggests a kind of exorcism from the 'haunting', an optimistic note to finish. You describe it as "charming yet naive". Why was it important to have a happy ending?

So, after all the preceding events, I decided that an uplifting finale was required. When I say uplifting, what actually happens - in terms of how I imagine the tale, the chap doesn’t get rescued or anything but actually gets caught in a current and ends up on the shores of a glacial coastline. Not quite a happy ending, but no longer lost at sea!

Thanks for giving us a few insights, Steven

Many thanks for taking the time to listen to the album.