Armed with the ultimate name to call a recording duo, The Marriage have reached first base in the promotional stakes and set the scene for the music to do the rest. IMAGINING SUNSETS takes the art form of the duet and the harmony into a fertile territory to spin eleven tracks that gently hover in an acoustic haze of melded voices. Add a touch of pedal steel and themes of loss, love and life, and you start to get the feel that inroads into the UK's country and Americana scene are about to be made.
Dave Burn and Kirsten Adamson may be making a smart move in the positioning of their new duo project, but it really is just another productive avenue since they first worked together in the band Ahab well over a decade ago. Burn has crossed the radar recently as a member of Orphan Colours and on this album he tones things down a touch to co-drive a class tutorial in how to curate a heartfelt and majestic duo record. Adamson will always likely have the tag of being the daughter of late Scottish rocker Stuart in her professional life, but she has continued to plot her own musical path, and in the latest venture has taken the infectious influence of classic country to heart.
Male-female duos are ten-a-penny in any realm of country-Americana pretence and it takes a delicate mix of the sources to avoid some kind of formulaic construction. The Marriage pull this off over the course of the half-hour tuning in time they politely request of a listener, albeit without the appearance of a crackerjack track that punches its way through the project's ceiling.
However some records gradually inch their way into a listener's inner periphery and IMAGINING SUNSETS succeeds while others often fail from the angle of possessing an over demanding persona. Dave Burn and Kirsten Adamson know the ropes, have acquired some useful accomplices and understand what floats a listener's boat. It's probably in their DNA to be able to turn out such a tempting and advocative release. Let's avoid the inviting puns in conclusion and just anoint The Marriage as a welcome inclusion into the satisfying world of duets that thrive with a sense of cohesive unison.
