Dakota Suite – Absence EP – Review
by Killian Laher

Dakota Suite are back with this short EP, a taster for an album with Quentin Sirjacq next year (hopefully).  No one does quiet desolation quite like Dakota Suite; you’ll hear it on Absence, rendered here in two versions: the opening guitar version and then the closing piano version.  If You Follow Me has a calm, hopeful melody and finishes with some birdsong, while the brief piano piece Navigating Pain We Did Not Choose is sparse, almost Satie-esque.

The centrepiece might be the sweeping majesty of the aptly-titled Sea of Sorrow, a string-dominated piece.  As ever, it’s available on Bandcamp: