stereophile.com: Records To Die For
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 10:22PM Gilad Atzmon 
Apparently Stephen Mejias of stereophile.com would die for WYATT/ATZMON/STEPHEN: For the Ghosts Within.
WYATT/ATZMON/STEPHEN: For the Ghosts Within
Domino DNO271 (LP). 2010. Gilad Atzmon, prod.; Robert Wyatt, Jamie Johnson, engs. ADD? TT: 56:13
From the very start, as it shudders and quakes with the sort of alarming string arrangement you might hear in the soundtrack to an old black-and-white romance, For the Ghosts Within announces itself as a heavy, bittersweet treat. This unapologetically melodramatic stuff is syrupy with Ros Stephen's soaring string arrangements, Gilad Atzmon's honeyed clarinet and alto sax, and Robert Wyatt's strange, ethereal voice, all quivering and aching like fall's golden leaves on thin tree branches. Listen, for instance, as Wyatt's voice rises with the violins and clarinet, holding on to his words ("you were there . . . for me . . . in the air . . .") as if they were the tail ends of dreams, until he no longer can and lets them fall ("long before the day that I was born"), as if each syllable were a step back down to earth. It's crazy. You can't help but smile even as the tears trickle down your trembling cheeks. XXXIV-3)
