ROOM40 CD/LP (2007)
“New Days … could easily be one of the best drone/audio sculpture works I have ever heard. Restrained, dynamic and melodic while also at times totally blissed-out, the work is proof that John Chantler and Carina Thoren (the duo who are For Barry Ray) have done their homework. The grasp of minimalism and tonal exploration that this duo possess raises the bar for others producing in this vein…
Regardless of what type of music you enjoy, New Days is an example of just how sonic exploration and song craft can be controlled and interwoven while allowed to exist in a relaxed, natural state. The quality of Carina and John’s work far outweighs anything this writer can possibly say to describe just how inherently enjoyable and utterly listenable this album actually is. Instrumental, experimental music rarely gets better than this – 9/10? Foxy Digitalis
“Hypnotic without the head-lulling stuff and sincere to the bone, “New Days” is a treasure of the best anti-climactic proportions” GAZ-ETA.
“Unique, bizarre and incredibly rewarding … some of the most beautiful psych-tinged dronescapes I’ve heard for ages” Boomkat
“a very fine work of really alternative rock, with a true keen ear for experimentalism” Vital Weekly
“Beautifully poised between blissed-out melody and anodyne improv, New Days is a richly nuanced collection that urges repeat visits.” Grooves Magazine
“It’s a soaring, drifting, ever-vanishing and ever-appearing kind of illusion, static and dynamic simultaneously, like a thought looping yet changing color and focus” Sonoloco
“strÃ¥lande musik som bÃ¥de är frisinnad, egensinnig och vacker.” Magnus Olsson, Sound of Music
“vague organ patterns, ghostly guitar whispers, unsettling ambience, austere experimentation and becalmed drones form glacial underwater ceremonies and dreamtime musings packed in a beautiful aura of emptiness and vastness” Mats Gustaffson, The Broken Face