Album Review: Frozen by Sight by Paul Smith

Anyone confronted with its concept – Paul Smith of Maxïmo Park’s travel diary set to minimalistic jazz and string compositions – might be forgiven for feeling nonplussed by Frozen by Sight’s prospects. It was never going to be as scintillating as a clowncore remix of Lennon’s Lost Weekend, but the collaborative album with Field Music’s Peter Brewis is a peculiarly riveting listen. Bereft of either drab Ginster pasty anecdotes or wildly esoteric revelations, there are instead observations on the subtle nuances of life – the “man sat on same ledge as me, flipping his mobile phone” on Exiting Hyde Park Towers, the suffocation of air-conditioning on Perth to Bunbury.

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Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith can’t be interested in reviving his mid-‘00s level of indie-disco fame. If he was, he wouldn’t be teaming up with prog-pop composer Peter Brewis from Field Music. ‘Frozen By Sight’ is an anthology of Smith’s travel writing set to Brewis’ strings, piano and percussion, taking the pair from their native north-east to Barcelona and LA.

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Frozen By Sight is a collaboration between two titans of North East England’s music scene: Paul Smith of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Maxïmo Park and Peter Brewis of Sunderland’s Field Music. The album’s evolution can be traced back to last year’s Festival Of The North East, for which Smith and Brewis were commissioned to write and perform new music. That music was subsequently laid down at Field Music’s studio in Sunderland, with Peter’s brother David acting as co-producer.

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