(Melodic)

Given Aidan Moffat’s consummate way with words – in Arab Strap, with Bill Wells, in his short stories – you might suspect that his expressive endowments were more inclined towards lyrics than music. His uncanny instrumental alter-ego L Pierre lays waste to any such assumptions as Moffat weaves classical fragments, rhythm samples and citations from Peter Pan, Macbeth and Buddhism to create a suite of found sounds that’s as fluent and resonant as his spoken-word work, albeit more mysterious.

Harnessing tape hiss and vinyl crackle as its heady and ambient backdrop, L Pierre’s otherworldly fourth album is equal parts eerie, bleak and gorgeous. Transcendent opus ‘The Grief That Does Not Speak’ proves that Moffat says beautiful things even when he says nothing at all.