The Italian music webzine has given its verdict on The Quiet Portraits by John Canning Yates

Respected Italian music webzine Indie for Bunnies has reviewed The Quiet Portraits. Here’s a translation of what they said:

Mysterious figure that of John Canning Yates. Singer and main songwriter of Ella Guru, a viable Liverpool band with an EP (“Three Songs From Liverpool”) and a single long-distance work released in 2004 called “The First Album,” the first and unfortunately last record before the group beloved by John Peel and much of the trade press eclipsed like a meteor.

A pity because there was talent in those songs, not surprisingly “The First Album” has recently been rediscovered by word of mouth becoming a tiny underground classic across the Channel. Who knows if this is one of the reasons that prompted John Canning Yates to make his recording comeback, solo this time.

…barely whispered melodies that excite and beguile the soul…

Valentina Natale, Indie for Bunnies

“The Quiet Portraits” reintroduces many atmospheres already explored fifteen years ago, that delicate melancholy, those often barely whispered melodies that excite and beguile the soul from the first notes of “The Way I Remember It” or the elegant folk of “In The Stillness Of The Night.”

“Healing” introduces more complex arrangements, “Until You Find Me (Song For Margaret Hardman)” dedicated to the pair of esteemed early twentieth-century British photographers Margaret Hardman and Edward Chambre, impresses with the careful use of spoken word and clarinet also present in the jazzy “October Song” and the romantic and dreamy “It Could Be So Good.”

Delicate textures those traced by the guitars and wind instruments of “Under Cobalt Skies,” piano instead protagonist in the reflective “Life In A Different Time” before a very well orchestrated final triptych: “Faraway Blues” with that “don’t leave me sad now, don’t leave me blue” and a crescendo closure, the sonic richness of “Riches” and the intensity of “Dreams Forgotten.”

Fans of the late Scott Hutchison or Phil Elverum might like the warm, comforting sound of an album born in the middle of the night, searching for those extremely rare moments when there is room for silence and peace. The hope is that in today’s turbulent world there are still minds ready to immerse themselves in the gentle portraits of an artist who would have deserved and deserves better luck.