music.wikisort.org - Composition

Cathedral is an album by Castanets, released on October 19, 2004 through Asthmatic Kitty.[1][5] Part of the album was recorded live and includes a dozen local musicians. Led by Raymond Raposa, this is the band's first foray into studio recording, which he described as 'a really protracted, uncomfortable process'.[6] The release features guest-vocals by Brigit DeCook and Liz Janes.[3] The material was partly recorded in a remote cabin in Northern California.[1] Raposa had planned to publish a novel to accompany the album, which failed to surface.[6]

Cathedral
Studio album by Castanets
Released	October 19, 2004[1]
Genre	Psychedelic folk
Length	33:26
Label	Asthmatic Kitty
Castanets chronology
Cathedral (2004) First Light's Freeze (2005)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Pitchfork Media	(8.5/10) [3]
Popmatters	Favorable [4]

Critical acclaim

Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork.com compared Raposa's writing on Cathedral to that of the poet Seamus Heaney. She described the album as a collection of 'deep gothic ballads' of 'country music [that] should sound like death, and more specifically, death-by-murky-submersion'.[3] Heather Phares of allmusic.com referred to the religious overtones of the album, describing it as 'spiritual searching' and as having 'a certain dark theatricality'.[2] Justin Cober-Lake at popmatters.com described Cathedral as having 'lo-fi production [which] helps develop the darkness of Castanets’ music. [It] sounds as if it was recorded in the desert at night, which suits the pre-technology fears of the album'.[4] Jon Pit from Dusted Magazine called it 'another welcome installment in the folk renaissance' although he described Raposa's vocals as 'lacklustre'.[7] In December 2004, American webzine Somewhere Cold ranked Cathedral No. 8 on their 2004 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame list.[8]

Track listing

Personnel

The album lists individuals as performers and cryptic descriptions of their parts,[5] these include:

• Mia Ferm
• Nathan Hubbard
• Nicholas Delffs
• Nathan Delffs
• Nicholas Hennies
• Connor Kirkwood
• Daniel Bryant
• Pall Jenkins
• Christopher Cory
• Gabriel Sundy
• Josh Quon
• Sean Jerd
• Raymond Raposa
• Brigit DeCook
• Elizabeth Janes
• Rafter Roberts

References

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