January 2024 – 7th Level Music

Squid announce new single and North American tour dates.

Next month, Squid — the British quintet of Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson — will embark on a North American tour in support of last year’s expansive and evocative O Monolith. In anticipation, the band share a new single, “Fugue (Bin Song).” A fan favorite and fixture in the band’s live performances over the past several years, the song was recorded during the O Monolith sessions with long-time collaborator Dan Carey at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in the spring of 2022 and was initially intended to be included on O Monolith, but didn’t make the final tracklisting. The song was re-mixed and edited by John McEntire (of Tortoise) in the later half of 2023.

Listen to “Fugue (Bin Song)”

O Monolith was praised by Consequence as “one of the most impressively creative rock records to grace 2023.” Following the band’s biggest UK and EU shows yet, Squid’s North American tour will see them stopping in Austin, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more with Water From Your Eyes supporting all dates. All concerts are listed below and tickets are available here.

This run will feature exclusive tour merch, including a collaborative tour poster from both bands and a homemade, tour exclusive cassette mixtapes from Squid. “It’s an antidote to the immediateness of music consumption nowadays,” Judge says. “It features music by friends and people I admire, probably best to be played at nighttime whilst sat on your favorite chair.” All copies are hand-stamped by Judge and features a Lino print design by Natalie Whiteland.

Purchase O Monolith
Watch Squid’s “The Blades” Video
Watch Squid’s “Undergrowth” Visualizer
Watch Squid’s “Swing (In A Dream)” Video

Squid Tour Dates:
Fri. Feb. 2 – Austin, TX @ The Parish *
Sat. Feb. 3 – Dallas, TX @ Dada *
Mon. Feb. 5 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East *
Tue. Feb. 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West *
Thu. Feb. 8 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *
Fri. Feb. 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
Sat. Feb. 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel *
Wed. Feb. 14 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club*
Thu. Feb. 15 – Montreal, QC @ SAT *
Fri. Feb. 16 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre *
Sun. Feb. 18 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
Mon. Feb. 19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line *
Fri. Feb. 23 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall *
Sat. Feb. 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre *
Sun. Feb. 25 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile *
Tue. Feb. 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom *
Thu. Feb. 29 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory *
Fri. March 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco *

* w/ Water From Your Eyes

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ben at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Robber Robber debuts first single – “Sea or War.”

Today, Burlington-based band Robber Robber — Nina Cates (vocals / rhythm guitar), Zack James (drums), Will Krulak (lead guitar), and Carney Hemler (bass) — share their new single/video, “Sea or War.” Co-produced by James, Cates, and Benny Yurco (Grace Potter), “Sea or War” speaks to the moments of confusion and reflection that happen as you try to navigate a messy world, represented through relentless percussion contrasted with fluid melodies. Of the track, the band explains: “‘Sea or War’ explores how fine the balance feels between comfort and futility. There are various opposing forces being fused together, which can be felt in the lyrics, musical arrangement, and production.”

Watch Robber Robber’s “Sea or War” Video

James and Cates have been playing music together since they were kids. Immersing themselves in the eclectic Burlington scene, they began writing songs and formed Robber Robber. The past few years has given the project time to “live and breathe” while the band honed in on their songwriting and captured the tangible group dynamic they’ve cultivated on stage: “With this curiosity-driven approach, we were able to really conceptualize and fine-tune what we wanted Robber Robber to be,” says the band. “This project is very conceptual, and therefore can be difficult to pinpoint, and that’s part of what we find refreshing about it. We feel a lot of freedom in having loose parameters to fit into.”

Next month, Robber Robber will play shows in Burlington, Northampton, and Brooklyn previewing new music to be released later this year.

Robber Robber Live Dates
Thu. Feb. 1 – Burlington, VT @ Radio Bean
Fri. Feb. 2 – Northampton, MA @ 90 King St.
Sat. Feb. 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Sultan Room
Thu. March 28 – Boston, MA @ O’Briens Pub *

* = w/ Thus Love and Native Sun
Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

fanclubwallet strive to be a “Band Like That” with their new single.

fanclubwallet — the project of Canadian singer-songwriter Hannah Judge — announces a new, full band EP, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines, out March 29th via Cool Online, and shares lead single “Band Like That.” The 24-year-old, until now proudly DIY in her approach, has enlisted the help of three close friends from the Ottawa scene (who also happen to be her touring band) for her most exciting release yet and “Band Like That” is the first taste of the band’s new direction. “I had spent months studying everyone else’s bands,” says Hannah, acknowledging a love for the likes of Metric, Pinback, Plumtree, and Alex G. “What made them so good? Why couldnt I be like them? And that’s where this new track came from.” In the accompanying video, Hannah’s character obsesses over a local band, eventually kidnapping its members and becoming headline news in a real-life newspaper called Club Chronicles created by Hannah herself and to be distributed around her hometown of Ottawa in the near future.

Watch fanclubwallet’s “Band Like That” Video

Once upon a time Hannah had been perfectly content sitting at home alone mucking around with cheap keyboards. But as fanclubwallet garnered more and more listeners on streaming services (breakthrough song “Car Crash in G Major” currently sits pretty on 13 million Spotify plays), a nationwide live tour quickly became an inevitability – even if it was something the once “debilitatingly shy” Hannah never expected would happen to her.

Things change when you leave the confines of your bedroom — not least the need to reconceptualize certain songs for a full-band dynamic. Thankfully for Hannah, that transition from DIY singer-songwriter to band leader was free of the usual tensions. In fact, since fanclubwallet had already started touring as a quartet before the new material came along, it could hardly have been simpler.

“I was lucky that when the time came to find a band, I had one standing right in front of me,” she says. Step forward: Nathan Reid (bass), Eric Graham (guitar) and Michael Watson, who not only played drums, but produced and mixed the record. “It’s cool to let your best friends take the lead,” says Hannah, who’s known half the band since way back in third grade, and once upon a time acted as their tour photographer. “They feel like my arms and my legs. Extensions of myself!”

After tracking one demo in a LA Airbnb and another in Alabama when their van broke down while on tour, the four of them de-banked to a cottage in Gatineau, Quebec, before applying the final touches at Port William Sound in Frontenac, Ontario – “an awesome place in the middle of nowhere.” The result is an EP partly conceived on the road which also deals thematically with the trials and tribulations of living and working in music — whether that’s the initial shock of leaving your more normal sedentary existence behind, band envy, stage fright, creepy photographers or simply finding joy in the collective.

Taking inspiration from 90s zine culture and leaning on Hannah’s side hustle as a cartoonist, fanclubwallet will release the EP with an exclusive set of comics, trading cards and chord charts for each song allowing fans to play along.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Dry Cleaning to reissue their first two EPs on March 08th and play a tour of smaller venues.

Dry Cleaning will reissue their first two EPs, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess, on March 8th, 2024. Remastered to celebrate the release, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess will be pressed as one single vinyl record. The former will be available on cassette for the first time and include an exclusive bonus single, a demo of New Long Leg single, “Strong Feelings,” recorded during the sessions for Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks. Today, the band has shared a new visualizer for the song “Sit Down Meal,” the first in a series of new visualizers created for all tracks across the EP by original ‘Magic of Meghan’ video collaborator Lucy Vann.

Watch the visualizer for “Sit Down Meal”

To coincide with the reissues, Dry Cleaning will head back on the road this March and April for headline sets that will lean heavily on songs from Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess. The tour will offer fans the chance to see the band play in more intimate venues and honor US shows that were postponed in 2020 (including SXSW). Tickets are on sale. Full tour dates are listed below and for tickets and information, head HERE.

The EPs will be reissued on vinyl featuring the original artwork and lyric sheet. Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess will be available digitally, on standard black LP, transparent blue LP (indie variant), CD and cassette on March 8th. To pre-order head HERE.

After a prolific 18-month period releasing two critically acclaimed John Parish-produced studio albums, New Long Leg (2021) and Stumpwork (2022), as well as last year’s companion release the five-track Swampy EP, South London’s Dry Cleaning are taking a moment to reflect on their journey and pay homage to their roots.

Dry Cleaning’s origin story is well known by now. Guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and bassist Lewis Maynard had been friends and musical collaborators for years, and invited mutual friend Florence Shaw – a visual artist, picture researcher and drawing lecturer – to join the band in 2017. With clear musical influences from the Feelies, the Necessaries, the B52s and Pylon, and constrained by the small garage space they rehearsed in, Dry Cleaning were drawn to making simple music; direct and uncomplicated, anything superfluous was left behind.

By March 2018 the group had recorded the six-track debut EP Sweet Princess with producer Kristian Craig Robinson at Total Refreshment Centre in a single day. Two months later, in May 2018, the band played their first live show in Dalston at the Shacklewell Arms, and released the EP in August. Sweet Princess was a thrilling debut, its dizzying and restless instrumentals with Shaw’s sardonic vocals delivering a satirical collage of witty observations and social commentary. A further 6 songs in the form of the Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks EP quickly followed two months after. It was named in tribute to the band’s rehearsal space in Maynard’s family’s south London (Sidcup) home, and to his mother Susan whose home-cooked meals sustained the four friends in between sessions. With singles like “Sit Down Meal” and “Viking Hair,” Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks is a powerful companion to Sweet Princess. They share a similar pent-up energy, unsurprising given they came to life in the same environment those EPs were created in, an environment that had a huge influence on the band during those formative years.

Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess Tracklisting:
Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks:
A1. Dog Proposal
A2. Viking Hair
A3. Spoils
A4. Jam After School
A5. Sit Down Meal

Sweet Princess:
B1. Goodnight
B2. New Job
B3. Magic of Meghan
B4. Traditional Fish
B5. Phone Scam
B6. Conversation

Dry Cleaning 2024 Tour Dates:
Sun. Mar. 10 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Mon. Mar. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Wed. Mar. 13 – Sat. Mar. 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mon. Mar. 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy
Tue. Mar. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy
Thu. Mar. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Fri. Mar. 22 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Sat. Mar. 23 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival
Mon. Mar. 25 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Tue. Mar. 26 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri. Apr. 5 – Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s
Sat. Apr. 6 – Newcastle, UK @ The Grove
Sun. Apr. 7 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard
Tue. Apr. 9 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s
Wed. Apr. 10 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s
Fri. Apr. 12 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Sat. Apr. 13 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Mon. Apr. 15 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
Tue. Apr. 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
Thu. Apr. 18 – London, UK @ EartH Theatre
Sat. Apr. 20 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique
Sun. Apr. 21 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Hall
Tue. Apr. 23 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22
Wed. Apr. 24 – Berlin, DE @ Halle am Berghain
Fri. Apr. 26 – Paris, FR @ La Gaite Lyrique
Fri. May 24 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival
Sat. Jun. 29 – North Adams, MA @ Solid Sound Festival

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: For the Love of House (2006)

I picked up this delightful three-disc house music compilation at Reckless Records in London last year for a mere two pounds. As the cover reads, it’s forty-five tracks. You could just put any of these into a DJ set and walk away for a little while.

Each of the discs has plenty of outstanding tracks on it. Disc One, for example, has a lovely mix of Ron Hall and The Muthafunkaz‘ “The Way You Love Me” with Marc Evans on vocals. Paul Johnson‘s “Get Get Down” is a lot of fun. Kathy Brown‘s “Don’t Give Up” is pure house bliss, as is the ’98 mix of Maw‘s “To Be in Love.” Soulsearcher‘s “Can’t Get Enough” is a house classic and not to be missed.

Disco Two starts off with six straight bangers: Bob Sinclair‘s “I Feel for You,” Powerhouse‘s “What You Need,” A.T.F.C.‘s “Bad Habit,” Sandy Rivera‘s ” I Can’t Stop,” and Knee Deep‘s “Good for Da Hole” and “I”ll Be There For You.” Soul Rebels‘ “I’ll Be Good,” with the great Lisa Millet on vocals, is a for-sure floor-filler.

Disc Three gets thumping right away with Junior Jack‘s “Stupidisco.” “Believe” by Ministers De La Funk (with Jocelyn Brown on vocals) brings a bit of gospel flair to the mix, which is always welcome in house music. M‘s “So Fly” is killer, full of fun raps and retro video game bleeps backed with a solid dance beat. Timmy Vegas & Andy Daniell‘s “Disco Shit” is the shit. The early 90’s rave vibe of it is top-notch. Martin Solveig‘s “Rocking Music” gets your attention and doesn’t let go of it. Mood II Swing‘s “Can’t Get Away” is a good example of a house music staple – songs about how you sometimes can’t quit love that’s great in some ways but bad in others.

This compilation is well worth finding if you can.

Keep your mind open.

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Mr. Bungle announces 2024 U.S. tour dates.

Mr. Bungle continue to extend their 2024 world tour, adding headlining dates to cities the band has not visited since the turn of the millennium, with newly announced performances now also slated for the Southeastern and Midwestern U.S.:

May 6 Dallas, TX House of Blues

May 7 Austin, TX Emo’s

May 8 Houston, TX House of Blues

May 11 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle

May 12 Raleigh, NC The Ritz

May 14 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl

May 15 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room

May 19 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue

Tickets are on-sale this Friday, Jan. 26 at 10 am local time. Ipecac alum, Otto Von Schirach opens on all headlining dates. Ticketing links are available at Ipecac.com/tours.

Full list of Mr. Bungle tour dates:

February 28 Tokyo, JP Toyosu Pit

February 29 Osaka, JP Namba Hatch

March 3 Auckland, NZ Auckland Town Hall +

March 6 Melbourne, AUS Festival Hall +

March 7 Adelaide, AUS Hindley Street Music Hall +

March 9 Sydney, AUS Hordern Pavilion +

March 10 Brisbane, AUS Fortitude Music Hall +

March 12 Perth, AUS Metro City +

May 6 Dallas, TX House of Blues #

May 7 Austin, TX Emo’s #

May 8 Houston, TX House of Blues #

May 10 Daytona Beach, FL Welcome to Rockville

May 11 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle #

May 12 Raleigh, NC The Ritz #

May 14 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl #

May 15 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room #

May 17 Columbus, OH Sonic Temple

May 18 Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Metal Fest

May 19 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue #

June 16 Zurich, CH X-Tra %

June 17 Milan, IT Magnolia %

June 19 Berlin, DE Huxley’s %

June 20 Copenhagen, DK Copenhell

June 23 Luxembourg Atelier %

June 24 Tilburg, NL 013 Poppodium %

June 27 Oslo, NO Tons of Rock

June 29 Clisson, FR Hellfest

+ with Melvins

% with Oxbow & Spotlights

# with Otto Von Schirach

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]

Review: Claudio Simonetti – Demons soundtrack (2023 reissue)

I picked this up the night I saw Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin play this score live to a screening of Demons (properly known as Demoni) in Chicago last year. The film is nuts, to put it mildly, and the score is a wild synthwave ride into dark places and crazy action sequences.

“Demon” starts us off with throbbing synth-bass to set the tone for what’s going to be a weird experience, and “Cruel Demon” is like a discovering a snake has slithered into the room and leads us into “Killing.” There’s plenty of that in the film, so it’s only appropriate that there’s a song called this. Heck, Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento, the creators of the film, could’ve just called it Killing. The song has neat orchestral synths mixed with electro-drums and metal guitar solos.

“The Evil One” is, appropriately, the creepiest tune on the entire soundtrack, with heartbeat beats and sinister synths to give you chills. “Out of Time” begins with violins and then switches to almost vaporwave sounds straight out of an early 1980s shopping mall. It’s wonderfully weird.

The Rustblade edition of the score is full of bonus tracks. The CD version is two discs. Disc One has two demo versions of the title track and one of “Killing,” a 2002 live version of “Demon,” a Simonetti Horror Project version of it from 1990, and, best of all the previously unreleased “Demon’s Lounge,” which, yes, is a lounge version of the title track. It’s amazing. I’d love a whole album of stuff like this from Simonetti.

Disc Two is all remixes by various artists, with only one by the Simonetti Horror Project. OHGR first remixes “Demons,” then Cervello Elettronico provides a cool industrial version of “Cruel Demon.” Simulakrum Lab gets you to to the dance floor with their remix of “Killing.” The Devil and The Universe remix “Threat” into something you’d hear while Jason Vorhees is pursuing you through a late night dance club.

:Bahntier// turns “The Evil One” into a full-out rave classic. Needle Sharing sees that and raises a drum and bass remix of “Out of Time.” Leæther Strip‘s remix of “Demons” adds more industrial throbs and grit to Simonetti’s original track. Chris Alexander gets creepy on his remix of “Killing,” and Creature from the Black goes all-out dance club mix on “Demon.” Dope Star Inc. slows things down on their remix of “Killing,” turning it into a stalking machine. Finally, the Simonetti Horror Project version of “Demon” pumps up the jams with hip hop beats and cool synth flairs to round out the second disc with a remix that is, I dare say, fun.

It’s a classic score for a wild horror film, and a must for fans of such stuff.

Keep your mind open.

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Paperkraft brings progressive house music back to the forefront on his upcoming EP.

Bubbling beneath the surface of Japan’s emerging underground scenes, Osaka based artist Paperkraft has passionately developed his craft, immersing himself in the culture and championing a new wave of Japanese artists. With the rise of genres like UKG & bass in neighboring cities like Kyoto – it’s the progressive and house movement Paperkraft is concerned about. Although more niche in his native city, developing a sustainable scene and championing the sounds he loves is the ultimate goal.

“UK Garage and other types of bass music music are thriving in Japan. I think the number of DJs of the younger generation has also increased.On the other hand, modern progressive house and liquid house music is a smaller scene. At least, no one around me is making similar music, so I would be happy if I could help bring some of it to Japan.”

First introduced to HOMAGE through friend and breakthrough producer Stones Taro, Paperkraft referenced releases like Aldonna’s Morph EP as the catalyst to send his demos, and who subsequently remixed ‘OK Corral’ on his forthcoming EP Not C But K.

Breakthrough tracks’ like Papekrafts’ ‘Dimple’ which was released by HearThug’s Are You Alien label gathered large support, and made a special appearance on Manami’s Boiler Room Debut; laying the foundations for tracks like ‘OK Corral’ to take shape. The infectious vocal sample coupled with jam-like riffs give off the vibe that it was done in one take in an act of pure enthusiasm, with that same energy lending itself to the dancefloor. Aldonna’s remix adds a balearic and emotive touch, while tracks like ‘Stella’ use a left leaning approach, perfect for low capacity clubs and sweaty, dimly-lighted rooms. Aiden Francis lends his signature sound to the remix of ‘Dizzy Disks’, with elements of breakbeat, trance and electro, showing why labels and clubgoers rate him so highly.

FORTHCOMING FEBRUARY 16TH.

PRE-ORDER

FEATURING REMIXES FROM ALDONNA & AIDEN FRANCIS.

PREVIEW

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[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

VR SEX’s new single, “Real Doll Time,” is now here for your real enjoyment.

Following 2022’s Rough Dimension LP, Noel Skum– aka Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty– made the radical leap of expanding his psychedelic post-punk vehicle VR SEX into a fully collaborative five-piece band. Hard Copy is the result– 10 tracks of sneering psychedelic punk streaked with Chrome-damaged freak-outs and snotty power pop harmonies chronicling sex doll love affairs and glue-sniffing fatales and is due out March 22nd via Dais Records. To mark the announcement, the band are sharing the first single from the record “Real Doll Time“.

Listen / share “Real Doll Time” on YouTube.

To christen the new group’s camaraderie of becoming a five-piece band, VR SEX booked a block of studio time in Glassell Park, swapped skeletal iPhone demos, and “did that classic thing of a band making the exact record they want without any interference.” Working 12-hour days, they banged out the basics in a week, then tracked the rest over a month, fine-tuning it with flourishes, FX, and amplifier experiments.

Mixed by guitarist Mike Kriebel– an accomplished engineer with dozens of credits across the punk, goth, and garage underground– the album is dense, rich, and spatial, spurred by Clinco’s muse of “reckless abandon.” Shadows of Chrome, Stickmen With Rayguns, Japanese psych, and loud-quiet-loud grunge anthems flicker here and there, but ultimately VR SEX’s mode is more sardonic and saturated, oscillating between ripped leather riffing and space echo meltdowns. Banning plug-ins was a mission statement, with most instruments tracked direct into the board, then guitars added via a daisy chain of amplifiers, panned and mixed and matched for maximum intoxication: “My goal is always to load up every take with as much sound as possible in one pass.”

Lyrically, the record revisits the project’s perennial fascinations: twisted lust, cheap thrills, dirty money, doomed delinquents, and ruined romance amid the creeps and cracked dreamers of gritty city voids. The title refers to the uncanny valley between “facsimile and the real thing, and the illusion that one is better than the other – when both come with their own menu of delights and demonic pleasures.” Hard Copy embraces extremes and outliers, delusion and perversion, the conflicted dimensional depths lurking in every exploded heart: “I can be ugly / I can be strong / I can be proper / I can be wrong / I can be lovely / or I can be gone / the thing that will haunt you is still hanging on.”

Pre-order Hard Copy here and look for more news + music from VR SEX soon.

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[Thanks to Stephanie at Another / Side.]

Nick Schofield returns with a “Picture Perfect” single.

Distant piano, vintage synths and faded orchestral arrangements resounding in spacious natural reverb. Nick Schofield’s Ambient Ensemble sees the Canadian composer and synth maven expanding his solo practice with an ensemble, adding his signature ambient essence to contemporary-classical and electronic music.

Where his previous two albums (Water Sine, Glass Gallery) were entirely solo endeavours and synth-focused, Ambient Ensemble invites gregarious group play. The compositions feature a chamber ensemble of grounding double bass and sliding fretless flourishes, warm violin and soothing vocals, with convivial accents of clarinet. Compelled by natural elements and intuitive composition, Ambient Ensemble is a refreshing assembly of acoustic works by Nick Schofield.

In January 2020, the album began with patient piano improvisations recorded in a church during deep Canadian winter nights. The sparse piano sketches were then slowed to half-speed and layered with classic Moog and Juno-6 synthesizers. After the project received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2023, the ensemble was formed with luminaries of the Gatineau/Ottawa music scene, featuring Yolande Laroche (voice, clarinet), Mika Posen (violin) and Philippe Charbonneau (fretless electric bass, double bass).

Citing the blissful spaciousness of pioneering new age flutist Joanna Brouk as a central inspiration, Ambient Ensemble lands delicately within the contemporary cannon alongside artists like M. Sage, Blue Lake, Ana Roxanne, and Joseph Shabason.

Regarding his newest single, “Picture Perfect,” Schofield says: “Picture Perfect is my most upbeat ambient song. It features pulsing piano, sparkling synths and swelling string arrangements – all recorded in a church with naturally resounding reverb.

The song is about envisioning perfection, while also recognizing the perfection of the present moment.

This piece shows the trajectory of my music, from working solo with synthesizers to incorporating acoustic instruments with an ensemble.

I wanted to work with acoustic instruments and an ensemble of musicians after hosting a concert series at Resonance Cafe in Montreal (which is sadly now closed) from 2018-2020 called Ambient Ensemble where I invited small ensembles of local musicians to improvise over my ambient music. It was beautiful and playful, full of serene surprises. The series featured so many amazing musicians – I was joined by label-mates Pietro Amato, Michael Feuerstack and Sarah Pagé, as well as Thanya Iyer, Austin Tufts, Eve Parker Finley, Sean Michaels, Alexei Perry Cox, Desert Bloom, Adam Kinner, Sarah Feldman, Justin Wright and many more. This new album is my way to produce the ‘Ambient Ensemble’ concert series on record. I am in love with how the album turned out because it is equally playful, serene and full of surprises that I would have never come up with on my own – just like the concert series.“

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[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]