I regret I don’t know English’s back catalogue, which ranges from concrete music to electronica to guitar-based compositions, as this album on Crónica is a real treat. Recorded in his native Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South India, and lavishly accompanied by Aki Onda’s photographs, “Happiness Will Befall” is a collection of intimistic minimal music unfolding at a very slow pace. Its immediate reference is Oren Ambarchi’s masterpiece “Suspension”, especially in tracks like “Adrift”, “I’ve been happy like this” or “Relocated (UTC)”, with their understated but emotionally explosive guitar playing; but also more droning and ecstatic pieces like “Two weeks I’ll never have again” and “Within confines of glass”, closer to Stars of the Lid’s melodic approach to ambient, are successful compositions. Out of the more humane forms of minimalism I’ve listened to lately, this is undoubtedly one of the best.
Eugenio Maggi