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Review by James McNair

Still only 21 years old, Peter Broderick has long been a respected multi-instrumentalist whose skills have embroidered music by the likes of M.Ward and Danish folk/post-pop act Efterklang. Having moved to Denmark in 2007 to tour with the latter outfit, Broderick made Docile, a mini-album of piano music for Swedish imprint Kning Disk, plus a full-length strings-and-piano work entitled "Float" for the UK experimental label Type. Home, though, is the album that sees this Portland, Oregon-born talent step into the spotlight as a singer-songwriter.

Ditching piano and strings for acoustic guitar, mandolin, musical saw and glockenspiel, Broderick has made a haunting record that calms and soothes. Like José Gonzales before him, he sings softly, almost meditatively, but Broderick uses more vocal harmony, hence opening track "Game" is a slow-drifting choral piece with minimalist guitar.

The record’s key themes — transience, impermanence, the search for a place to call one’s own — are underlined by song titles such as "There And Here" and "Not At Home," and by the lyric of the poignant, Simon & Garfunkel-eque "Maps" ("You settled down in the wrong place/ Pack up your bags and move away again"). Broderick, you sense, has already covered a lot of miles, and the subtle, shimmering music that his wanderings have inspired is a thing of great beauty.

He studied classical violin as a child, and the poised and spacious guitar and mandolin figures on "Sickness, Bury" evidence his sophisticated musicality. It’s the heart, not the head that rules on Home, though; heard at night, right before falling asleep, it impacts like a charm or a spell.