Black Sand – ‘Around the Sun’ (2019)

Anthony Evans floats in with his latest black sand album entitled Around the Sun, another in a wayward series of psychedelic lullabies, where this time out the music shimmers with a more concerted effort, is more sonically cohesive and more emotionally secure, coming off with not only a full-bodied sound, but one where the songs suggest an inward connectedness, creating what stands as a musical concept of dynamic resound.

Building his dreamscapes slowly … note by note and image by image allows Evans’ music to unfold with an organic rhythm of exuberance and visionary dreamlike wonder. Effortlessly, Black Sand manages to waste your listening space without breaking stride through a series of guitar themes and structures that feel expansively modest, straightforward and earnest, at times with a sense of controlled passionate melancholy, yet with a guiding hand that reassuringly nurtures his listeners with each step they venture into this world of wanderlust.

As if with a breath of fresh air, this time out Black Sand’s vocals are more present and delicate than ever before, occupying a forward standing position instead of being woven into the background harmonies, delightful gentle and inspiring, bestowing a sense of confiding self-confidence.

“Seldom do Black Sand’s ideas come across as open-ended explorations, more that these songs are an inherent collection of experiences.”

Seldom do Black Sand’s ideas come across as open-ended explorations, more that these songs are an inherent collection of experiences Anthony has borne witness to, then like some galactic explorer from the other side of the sun, drifting back with his stories and imagery, the music entices others to follow his path and view for themselves the wondrous nature of other worlds when seen through the eyes of a true visionary.

But then, perhaps I’ve got it all wrong, maybe these songs are simply the inward emancipations of love and joy riding around the world on some cosmic current of incandescence delight.

*** Available as a digital download and limited edition cassette, 15 copies recorded in real time.

– Jenell Kesler

Black Sand – Around the Sun (2019)

A Quiet Evening with Anthony Evans of ‘black sand’, by Jenell Kesler