by Phil Scarisbrick

Despite the sparse recordings, Nicholas Krgovich’s ode to solitude will envelope you in its cosmic beauty

The idea of solitude is one that evokes conflicting emotions – with each as tangibly engulfing as the other. The idea of loneliness being all there is and all there will be is not only a huge weight to bear, but also a bleak state of being. As Phillip Larkin said, ‘Virtue is social’. The flip side to this though is a beauty of trusting yourself, and not having to share it with anyone else. Living a life shrouded by nothing but your own decisions and their consequences. There is a liberation to not having to give a fuck about anyone or anything but yourself and the world around you, and it can lead you to seeing the beauty in the most seemingly mundane things.

Nicholas Krgovich’s new Orindal Records-released album, Ducks, explores these themes across eleven carefully constructed tracks. The delicate delivery of both the instrumentation and the vocals pair perfectly with the lo-fi, four-track recordings that capture their beauty. There is an appreciation of simply being alive, of the unbelievable brilliance of being able to experience the rising and setting of the sun, the feeling of the myriad of textures that our skin experiences without ever contemplating their impact, and all the other things that the majority of us take for granted.

From the steely ice of Spring Rain ( ‘When looking for the perks, I’m glad Christmas is done / It may be cold but there’s sun, and birds busy in the garden’) through the summertime musings of the title track (‘A fine day in the sun, a fine day for everyone / Dogs play, ducks swim, with all the life in them, I watch’) to the hazy warmth of Return (‘Waking up in the front room, your Victorian sofa creaks under me / The sun’s already hot, drink coffee, run in the park, covered in sweat, climb the front steps / And what to do with the rest of the day?’), there is a thread that pierces through the whole record: that solitude and an appreciation for the beauty of simply being alive are rarely far from each.