Ecstatic Lightsongs

Jon DeRosa celebrated the 25th anniversary of his main musical guise as Aarktica with both a reissue of his striking 2000 debut album No Solace In Sleep and a fully new effort, his tenth overall under the name, Ecstatic Lightsongs. If the throughline of DeRosa’s work, as Aarktica or his own, has arguably been darker shades of guitar and electronic atmospherics, what’s also notable is the stylistic fluidity he’s shown in turn from ambient flow to stark folk, with Lightsongs being one of his more lyrically and musically formal efforts. Arguably anchored by the spirit of the notable UK postpunk band the Chameleons – the album ends with an understated cover of that group’s anthem “Second Skin” while the quietly stirring opening song, “Trick Of The Light,” has a title that calls to mind the lyrics of that earlier group’s “Monkeyland” – Lightsongs is squarely in the vein of an often ill-defined transnational strain of moody, romantic post-goth meditation that suggests Mark Lanegan as much as Breathless. DeRosa’s warm, lower-toned yearning fully suits other remarkable songs as “Why Say Anything” and “Laughing In The Rain.”