This new album “New Home” by Pol Tonin is like a hidden gem for me. I put this album on while I was just sitting around. Half listening while doing other things. Then I noticed I’d stopped what I was doing without realizing. Something about it kept pulling me back in. That says a lot about how this album works. It’s not loud or flashy. The record moves slowly but there’s something a bit eerie in the way it lingers and you’ll like it.
He keeps things stripped down here. The acoustic sounds, the simple arrangements and the very important thing that nothing is crowded. You may think it’s too bare in your first seconds but then those rough edges start to make sense. It’s not trying to be clean and the sound isn’t polished to perfection. It’s raw with small imperfections as if it were recorded in one take, late at night.
He has a rich voice and it sits in the middle of everything. It’s a little distant but steady. There’s a haunting tone to it that fits the mood of the record perfectly. His vocal delivery is special and worked for me and I loved it.
The atmosphere of this album is unqiue and has this slow drifting quality that makes you lose track of time a bit. I ended up replaying some titles in the evening. When everything’s quieter and they just clicked more. I really liked his writing style, it’s honest and comes from real thoughts.
Honestly, by the last second I felt like I’d been taken somewhere, even if I couldn’t fully explain where. It’s not an album you rush through. For me, it’s one I’ll keep coming back to when I want something calm, a little strange and honest in its own way.
