Rapt and the lost home movie, the sonic broken mirror of "Until the Light Takes Us"

 

"Today I got a home to a letter from an old friend / Said he was working on finding his smile / He’d lent it with his heart and left only fear for himself / He spoke of how much he missed being a child..."

The lost home movie, the sonic broken mirror of "Until the Light Takes Us" by Rapt, the moniker of London based singer songwriter, poet, deep thinker Jacob Ware, feels like a somber emotional treatise on death as not only a part of life but maybe as a constant tethered partner. Like both existences hold hands all the way through, siblings or something like that. As you listen to the stories, poetry contained within full of existential reflections, you will surely come away clinging to memories, your own, good or bad or something in between tied to emotional balloons to be released later.

"Until the Light Takes Us" is the second single, the title track, from his upcoming fifth Album. The first single was "I Will be my End" which I wrote about back in December (2024) and likened to "one of those forever songs, ever existing, always here like a fable, like a parable”, you can read the review here. "I Will Be My End" has been called bleak by some and I suppose "Until the Light Takes Us" could be considered as such too and, in fact, Jacob shares this, ["This is a long one, so give it some time please (at least until Imogen Burman's cello kicks in). Consider this as a death lullaby, drifting slowly into the "peaceful black"] so take the artist's descriptor as you step into his sonic fray. I, myself, would not call either song bleak but, instead, sobering. I think if one doesn't reflect on the end of life, then one might have a hard time thinking hard about how to begin life, to really begin living. Oftentimes in our modern societies we don't figure out what is important or how to process the difficulties of our existence and human existence until we are quite older. It make me wonder if these deep things should be looked at early in life. Maybe we wouldn't piddle time away if we started processing our emotions at more tender ages. Maybe piddling time away is natural. I don't know.

LINER NOTES (bracketed):

[Jacob Ware is Rapt, but what Rapt is isn’t so simple. The London native describes it as less of a typical music project and more like a label, in which he just so happens to play the part of each artist. Ware first cut his teeth in the UK’s extreme metal scene as the founding bassist for Enslavement, but this belies the directions he would later take his music when striking out solo. His self-titled 2018 debut was a series of serene, stretched ambient instrumentals, while subsequent releases None of This Will Matter and Drouth saw Ware explore swirling, reverb-saturated singer-songwriter fare and a techno twist on the ideas from Rapt, respectively. Brand consistency be damned, Ware’s an artist’s artist: helplessly compelled from one idea to the next.]

"Until the Light Takes Us" (The Album)

[While the album’s title is an explicit reference to the 2008 black metal documentary of the same name, Ware’s primary mode here is crushingly beautiful bardic folk. Lead single “I Will Be My End” is reminiscent of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, if Drake somehow traveled forward in time to find himself captivated by Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (the sole video game Ware claims to play). Ware’s melancholic fingerpicked melody underlines a tale of grasping at agency in the face of a failing body. The opening line “I’ve seen Medusa / I’ve seen storms” is in reference to his struggles with both early onset rheumatoid arthritis and epilepsy, the former of which prevented him from playing guitar for a full year. It sets the tone for a sort of bleak, heavily conditional optimism that colors a record fixated on “ends” and how we press on when inevitable doom is just over the horizon.]

"Until the Light Takes Us" is a song to embrace and revisit from time to time. While maybe sadly reflective, it also feels like an assuring arm around your shoulders. I am of the age that my days left as a mere percentage of my days before. I no longer have my parents around to look to for love, for laughs for comfort and I have said goodbye to others as well. We are all forever changed when life like loved ones pass on and become only memories to embrace so my very best advise is to embrace those who are important to you often and then embrace them more.

"We spend our day amongst all the stone

By the warmth of your hand, there lies a statue in decay
A shadow fell heavy across my soul
I thought of all those who lay in the somme mud
I pictured all those who perished in France
You asked if I’d play you this song
When you’re old and tired
And asked if our love would die when are grey
When we are grey
I don't know where I’m going but I know that I’ll meet meet you there
This I know to be true
I don’t know when I’ll leave but I will leave one day
This I know to be true
This is know to be true
Tonight I sat down to write a reply
I said my friend don't ever be ashamed
Our dreams may fade, be glad that you had them yesterday
You are here now as I am here now
You see I am me and you can be you
That's all I think we can do
That's all I think we can do"

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/41r45fPBmAlIuPVsu6I62A

https://rapt.bandcamp.com/album/until-the-light-takes-us-3

https://www.instagram.com/raptfolk

https://www.facebook.com/raptfolk


Rapt to Release Title Track and Second Single “Until the Light Takes Us”, Out January 10, 2025, From His Upcoming Fifth Album Until the Light Takes Us




FFO: Damien Jurado, Phil Elverum, Nick Drake, Bonnie “Prince” Billy


Rapt , folk, singer songwriter, slow core, diaristic, thoughtful, upcoming album "Until the Light Takes Us", new single "Until the Light Takes Us", thoughtful, reflective songs,  singer songwriter Jacob Ware, London,