Alex Dematteis
Musicshockworld
Salford
25 giugno 2026
Sun Shines Cold - Light Fades Into Ruins
There are certain conditions, in the quest to uncover the truth, which lead one to glimpse inner landscapes capable of stirring up anxieties and tensions, within a cerebral circuit that highlights one’s connection to new truths: in this respect, music is truly capable of working miracles. The Edinburgh-based duo, comprising Brian Jordan and Colan Miles, undertake a series of explorations on their second full-length album, reaffirming the direction set by their debut whilst broadening the scope of their sensibility, with a keen eye on contemporary issues, and devising a whole range of elements to deepen their artistic inquiry. Tools such as encyclopaedias, slow rhythms to allow for sonic expansions, an imagery that translates personal experiences, and a sense of belonging to the nourishment of technique and the journey towards the harmonious realm of pleasure – whilst also encompassing grey undertones and tensions kept perfectly within the bounds of obedience.
Light Fades Into Ruins is a celestial garden which, amidst the storms of existence, seeks to create rainbows – in footsteps, in dreams – watering the air and energies with an unpredictable sweetness, whilst paying close attention to the power of sound, perfectly ensured by Simon Scott’s production. Having mastered the previous album, Echoes Of A Former Life, now takes a step back to observe, bearing witness to the great maturity achieved by the Scottish band and blessing the whole with his skilful direction.
An album in which all the seasons come to life, where sustained notes prevail, alongside skilful harmonic exploration and a deliberate intention to give the introductions the ability to perfectly set the scene and foreshadow what is to come.
As always, there is no shortage of references, but this time Brian and Colan have managed to fully express their style and give voice to their own needs, ensuring that a generous measure of originality permeates these thirteen tracks – resulting in an album that feels as though it lasts a whole day, all born of a desire for greater self-awareness. It is not a snapshot, a sound of a moment, but rather an articulation of studies, explorations and inclinations, with the skilful courage of those who, despite concerns about having released too many minutes, actually offer us footholds, refuges, compensations, support and the clear ability to have expressed, alongside their talent, a precise documentation of what is necessary for their existence. We thus find ourselves in the midst of the urgent need for a European listening, as a diligent act of reassurance, as a dutiful scrupulousness to leave nothing to chance.
These are compositions that transcend the tedious tendency to categorise musical genres, offering instead the profound need to invest time free from this constraint, to generate tangles of nerves, electrical cables that embody wisdom and a truly distinctive disposition towards nourishing the soul – a musical prayer in the form of slowly simmering sounds, even when the rhythm seems to be faster and more firmly rooted in physicality.
Brian’s vocals are careful to serve as an accompaniment rather than a pompous throne: everything flows smoothly; his vocal cords seem to be an additional guitar, and his grace ultimately wins you over and bestows truly immense pleasures, in which the sensation is one of vertigo that teaches the delight of sensory and emotional flows in search of a temple filled with sonic diamonds.
For his part, Colan has enhanced the melodic writing on the keyboards, and his bass has distanced itself from post-punk without, however, ceasing to insinuate the pleasant suspicion that his origins and background are still there to bear witness to their own importance and value.
There are, still and as always, hints of shoegaze to enrich the textures, lending a broad spectrum of refined taste that aligns perfectly with Brian’s guitars, resulting in a compact core where musical genres are not merely traversed, but experienced as a breath of fatal beauty…
The lyrics are surprising, showing exponential growth in their interpretation, in transforming thought into vowels and consonants capable of creating multiple moods; a design that reveals the wisdom of the perspective, the choice of subjects, and a simple vocabulary that nevertheless challenges the listener’s understanding to preserve the reality of these words, which serve as a further tool, where what is explicit seems to await the web of difficulties in order to embrace it. A striking transformation, a piece that demonstrates just how much this second work is a distillation of wisdom in flight, an oil lamp that illuminates time.
Capable of creating an amniotic, cerebral and physical addiction, the experience of this gem transforms the sand in the hourglass into an unexpected outpost of successive gifts, a series of illustrations that know how to curb the urge to rush. In the end, it feels as though one has read a book amidst a whirl of flames and clouds, with the soul, lost in thought, having found the right respite. This is not writing aimed at perfect songwriting, but a true scattering of petals and breaths, with songs that grow, listen after listen, like a generous sparkle of somersaults and acrobatic feats in search of a simple gesture: to bestow pleasure.
It is a joy to see the grey confetti of Disintegration and the celestial escapades of Souvlaki reaffirmed, as if they remained their guiding star; yet, at the same time, these compositions reveal a new parallel universe to us and, as I said before, their true maturation is defined by the intention – that delightful stroke of luck – of discovering, in their own hands, a talent that owes nothing to anyone.
The feelings, reflections, instincts and upheavals (in this sublime album) form the unconscious link that an attentive listener needs: slopes, rhythmic stutters, excursions into the epicentre of dreams, the fragility that transforms from a mask into, impetuously, an unyielding rebel capable of embracing it as a resource. When the vocals and music rise in pitch, one realises that there are peaks that can be scaled even with little oxygen…
One cannot help but adore that sense of anticipation, its slow, lingering movement, which plunges into the warm radiator of sonic trails that smell of nostalgia devoid of sadness, as if propelled towards a present that knows how to stand out. Something Celtic, something folk, drifts through these tracks, like mould disguised as an antenna: a careful listen reveals all this, as if origin could never be rejected. And it is precisely this aspect that makes this approach to Light Fades Into Ruins so intriguing: a long, continuous embrace between one’s DNA and the need to break away from it, in an imaginary garden where the inhabitants have different languages and customs, yet manage to live together in harmony.
A fire, amidst the winds and shivers, can only penetrate, urging us to become better beings…
And Sun Shines Cold’s fire is truly intense and essential…
Song by Song
1 - Light Fades
An awakening, a pleasant drowsiness, hints of life, movements that seem like breaths not yet conscious, a hint of tension, mist on the hair, drumming accompanied by a corrosive bass, keyboards whispering waves of sweetness, with the sensation of a melancholy seeking comfort, resulting in a highly evocative instrumental track…
2 - Winters End
Often one closes one’s eyes not to dream but to see the harsh reality more clearly and be able to bid it farewell. The lyrics are an ordeal of stinging nettles and rusty nails, whilst the music manages to find truly dreamlike dimensions, serving as a necessary counterbalance. Nineties shoegaze here becomes a benchmark, a boundary, a journey that makes one’s lungs acutely aware of these dense lyrics, with the whole experience gliding into a timeless cradle…
3 - Wait My Time
Love takes on different forms, and in the story of two people in a relationship we see the discord, the shattered balance, the recklessness and the pain borne solely by one of the two protagonists. The soundscape is a sword that races swiftly, with fluctuations and forays into musical genres like a shy bow, because, in truth, this track showcases the varied and spectacular ability to turn instrumental fusions into a passport to wonder and freedom…
4 - Everything Has Changed
The album confirms the centrality, in the lyrics, of interpersonal relationships (on the one hand) and the move towards subtle stylistic shifts in the music (on the other), and in this specific track we see turbulence coexisting with the epic nature of the drama through visual crescendos and sounds that blend precious elements from both musicians, here in a parade of innovations that could signal their future direction. Almost pop, whilst seriousness and tension are expressed to the full, creating a delightful combination. Alternative, shoegaze and post-punk feast together here, happily…
5 - All I Need
And when darkness grips the mind and leaves but a few days for the future, here is a tear capable of becoming music, a glide through the clouds, a shoegaze haze that draws on The Cure’s Disintegration to ease the pain but not the intensity… The vocals find a way to take centre stage, the surrounding music seems to bow down, and everything soars in a flight where the guitars decide to cross the farthest skies, taking us with them…
6 - Where I Lie
But just how delightful are Sun Shines Cold’s ambient caresses, when they dress as magicians and descend into the craters of risk, with their effervescence commanded to transform into a muffled roar? Yes, there are small ‘walls of sound’, grating away at the melody, but ultimately what prevails is a truly remarkable innocence, the patience in seeking out the most fitting sounds, a network of nerves translated into a pilgrimage of peaceful notes…
7 - Last Sunset
Spectacular, smooth, powerful, medieval in its shadowy passages, modern in its attention to detail, a minimalist track that builds in intensity, a thrill fuelled by almost isolated loops, by guitars awaiting the sunlight, whilst the keyboards converse with the night and the drumming takes us in the direction of Slowdive, alongside a spirituality that needs no words…
8 - Into Ruins
The third instrumental track and yet another demonstration of a Morse code-like language capable of reaching the listener: ‘Into Ruins’ is a secret diary of lunar excursions, a season seeking a landing place in another, with a body of guitars driving the syncopated rhythm and reaching shores far removed from shoegaze. And so we find ourselves immersed in the grandeur of Rohmer’s films, where everything is organised around a precise, visceral theme connected to the present…
9 - A Feeling Unknown
Knowing and forgetting, desiring the truth and its opposite – within this intricate behavioural and literary dynamic – transforms this track into a series of deserts cradled by echoes of rising deserts, a perimeter of notes that are like lovers in search of water, a subtle and golden expression, an intense demonstration that the Scottish duo possess feminine sensibilities in abundance…
10 - I Watched You Fall
Time and its via crucis: in this song we find ourselves in the final reaches of joy, where what prevails is the realisation that everything is surrendered to a conscious legacy. The most intense track on this album, amid tears and endless thanks, within a procession that showcases all the band’s qualities, here in their need to contain and explore the past and the present, and to look towards the future. An enigmatic loop (that of the vocals) settles into the sonic tapestry, giving way to a celestial moment…
11 - Betrayal
A whirlwind of references; many songs and many bands find their way into this track. Yet they, on the other hand, bring their craft to the fore and craft a synthesis in which what has been explored seems like a tail, a trail leading far away… A psychedelic approach within a versatile framework that captivates and holds truly powerful pleasures…
12 - Lost Again
In the penultimate instalment, the duo raise the banner of effervescence and artistic fertility within a sun-drenched enclosure, where everything that appears is a shoegaze ray piercing the dust, in a glow that astounds and turns each breath into a gasping release of toxins. As time passes and the songs unfold, one realises just how much substance lies within their reasoning and their cultural background. Here, for example, we see how various small shifts demonstrate a transcendence of the song form to gain a passport leading to a more tangible beauty…
13 - No Way Back
And it draws to a spectacular close, amidst elegant melodic passages in an ocean of dreams and a space of rays steeped in sadness, with the truth revealing how everything is intertwined to culminate in a farewell in which the arpeggios embody the impetuosity of post-rock, whilst the shoegaze elements are almost silent…
https://sunshinescold.bandcamp.com/album/light-fades-into-ruins
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