Half-Handed Cloud
Thy Is a Word & Feet Need Lamps
Asthmatic Kitty

Another band, or rather solo project, from the Asthmatic Kitty label, and therefore a stable-mate of Sufjan Stevens. Thy Is a Word & Feet Need Lamps is album number three. Half-Handed Cloud is mainly, well, John Ringhofer only - multi-instrumentalist and performance artist. But, hey, Sufjan Stevens sits in behind the drum-kit.

Half-Handed Cloud plays quirky folk-pop, maybe related to the more oddball projects connected/related to the Elephant 6 family such as Major Organ and the Adding Machine, Frosted Ambassador, and Marshmallow Coast. The songs created by Ringhofer are merely a web of sounds and structures of the rather peculiar and unsuspected. But the sweet melodies shine through, and the charm is of great value. Keywords are naivety and efficiency. And pop on the wild side. Half-Handed Cloud is also connected to the Sounds Familyre label. (Brother) Daniel Smith (of the Danielson Famile) has been involved with the recording and mixing, and a lot of the instrumentation and choir-works links Thy Is... to the works of the Danielson Famile.

Ringhofer is another of the Christian artists (as Sufjan Stevens and Daniel Smith). But this Christianity is far, far, far away from the right wing, 'new born' one of horror tagged to the likes of G. W. Bush and his circle of friends and followers. With Half-Handed Cloud (a phrase from somewhere in the Old Testament) we meet more of an avant-garde, underground Christianity. Closer to some anarchist folk-punk-pop approach. Thy Is a Word & Feet Need Lamps is a most exciting 16-songs-in-30-minutes ride, recommended for triggering your pop-senses longing for some little extra.

Copyright © 2005 Håvard Oppøyen