| Cathedral | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Castanets |
| Cover: | Cathedral (Castanets album) cover art.jpg |
| Released: | October 19, 2004 |
| Genre: | Psychedelic folk |
| Length: | 33:26 |
| Label: | Asthmatic Kitty |
| Next Title: | First Light's Freeze |
| Next Year: | 2005 |
Cathedral is an album by Castanets, released on October 19, 2004 through Asthmatic Kitty.[1] [2] Part of the album was recorded live and includes a dozen local musicians. Led by Raymond Raposa, this is the band's first foray into studio recording, which he described as 'a really protracted, uncomfortable process'.[3] The release features guest-vocals by Brigit DeCook and Liz Janes.[4] The material was partly recorded in a remote cabin in Northern California. Raposa had planned to publish a novel to accompany the album, which failed to surface.
Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork.com compared Raposa's writing on Cathedral to that of the poet Seamus Heaney. She described the album as a collection of 'deep gothic ballads' of 'country music [that] should sound like death, and more specifically, death-by-murky-submersion'. Heather Phares of allmusic.com referred to the religious overtones of the album, describing it as 'spiritual searching' and as having 'a certain dark theatricality'.[5] Justin Cober-Lake at popmatters.com described Cathedral as having 'lo-fi production [which] helps develop the darkness of Castanets’ music. [It] sounds as if it was recorded in the desert at night, which suits the pre-technology fears of the album'.[6] Jon Pit from Dusted Magazine called it 'another welcome installment in the folk renaissance' although he described Raposa's vocals as 'lacklustre'.[7] In December 2004, American webzine Somewhere Cold ranked Cathedral No. 8 on their 2004 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame list.[8]
The album lists individuals as performers and cryptic descriptions of their parts, these include: