Haunted by the beauty of Evening Hymns’ Spectral Dusk

By: Sarah MacDonald –

We’re all haunted by something, aren’t we? We may have ghosts in the periphery of our minds or shadowy figures a few paces back as we take weary step after step to nowhere in particular. A haunting is a million fragmented images you try to furiously put back together in hopes of holding on to something lost or maybe it is one single image reeling over and over.

But has a haunting ever sounded so good?

Spectral Dusk, the latest, wholly beautiful record by Canadian collective Evening Hymns tackles the tough business of grieving, letting go and perhaps accepting that we could always be haunted. And maybe that’s okay.

Singer Jonas Bonnetta unravels his grief on this newest record, coping with the death of his father. The record is in essence a detail of this heartbreaking journey with happy memories and forward thinking optimism along the way.

Bonnetta parses the after effects of grief, like on “Arrows”, as he looks in a grimy reflection for answers about who or what or where he is going after this harrowing, yet inevitable, life experience. “Song to Sleep to” sounds like a hymn one would sing to the ill or tired to revive or heal them. It is one of the many attempts to reconcile with not wanting to lose someone and repair them so they stay around just a little longer.

Spectral Dusk also deals heavily with the institution of family and all the elements in it; good, bad or dysfunctional.  On “Family Tree”, Bonnetta soothingly croons that he will “chop down this family tree”, and in doing so deconstructs what family is and the obligations of a traditional family structure.

But this record is more than just about a grieving son trying to move on with his life after the death of his father.  It is, perhaps, a celebration of life; of the things we take for granted, of the ways in which we connect on a very basic human level.  On “Moon River”, with its namesake taken from the original Mancini tune, Bonnetta sings about a love so true; crooning about a lover who “can deliver a calm that will wash all over [him].” It’s a sweet, endearing sentiment, which lifts the record from a place that could be dreary and morose but allows you to see there is a light, a life, in spite of the darkness of grief.

Spectral Dusk is a record you listen to in the dark with the blankets tucked up over your head. It is a mesmerizing record that deserves a great deal of thought and attention during a first listen. But after that let it haunt you, wash over you, and just be.