artist: Slow Dancing Society country of origin: USA style(s): Lounge, ambient rock, neo-romantic, environmental essential releases: The Sound Of Lights When Dim (2006, Hidden Shoal) Priest Lake circa '88 (2008, Hidden Shoal) Under The Sodium Lights (2010, Hidden Shoal)

Slow Dancing Society is the one-man show of Washington-based composer Drew Sullivan. His sublime debut album The Sound Of Lights When Dim uses various combinations of piano, stately organ, synthetic tones, percussive clicks and especially electric guitar. It's very gentle, melodic and unabashedly romantic. The unusual intimacy of Sullivan's compositions is reflected in the wonderful track titles: "How Life Was Meant To Be Lived", "A Lonesome Sentiment" and so on. The repetitive minimalism of "A Song That Will Help You Remember To Forget" overlays multiple guitar motifs on a subtle bed of keys with such tenderness it may well bring a tear to your eye. It's sensual, addictive and, yes, best played when the lights are rather less than bright.

If The Sound of Lights When Dim has a spiritual cousin in Sullivan's oeuvre its his excellent fourth album Under The Sodium Lights. It's has similar intimacy and tonality and on one level could be seen a series of wordless love songs.

Also recommended - if you're feeling a little more adventurous - is his third release Priest Lake. It revels in romanticism but this time is focused on a sense of place rather than people. It's certainly different from the others, being much more landscaped and impressionistic and lacking the rhythmic pulses and clicks that often propelled the music of his debut. However unlike a disappointing companion album of landscape music that preceded it, Priest Lake remains tonal, warm and free of unnecessarily abrasive distortion. Sullivan clearly loves the swirling, vibrating sounds of a Hammond organ played through a Leslie speaker cabinet; it's this sound in combo with reverberating electric guitar that defines the release.

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