Album Review: Far Caspian, Autofiction

Far Caspian – the solo project of Leeds-based Irish musician Joel Johnston – has always created intimate worlds for listeners to inhabit. On Autofiction, his third LP, Johnston pairs his expansive, experimental folk sound with his most vulnerable songwriting yet.

The record opens with the slow-burning ‘Ditch’, where off-kilter guitar strums and ascending keys build into a cacophony, an unsettling-but-gripping mood-setter. Tracks like ‘The Sound Of Changing Place’ draw you into an hypnotic trance with looping, circular guitar riffs, while ‘Window’ shows Johnston’s restraint, his sparse vocals and subtle shifts in harmony colouring the song in unexpected ways.

‘Lough’ is more melodic and structured, with discernible choruses and a pop-adjacent sadness, while ‘Here is Now’ flirts with post-punk energy, evoking Fontaines D.C., before pivoting into Johnston’s soft-spoken intimacy.

Across Autofiction, the singer offsets clattering instrumentation with delicate lyrics, a sonic metaphor for the storms and silences of the mind.

That sense of conflict is no accident. Written in the wake of his Crohn’s disease diagnosis and ongoing struggles with anxiety and OCD, the record reflects Johnston’s attempt to find peace within himself.

Overall, this is an album about being vulnerable enough to let go, and courageous enough to keep moving forward.

7/10

Out now